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Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo, who has enjoyed a career resurgence after the Oklahoma City Thunder traded him and Domantas Sabonis for superstar forward Paul George in 2017, suffered a gruesome knee injury on Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors.
Fox Sports Indiana shared footage of the play:
FOX Sports Indiana @FSIndiana
Let’s really, really, really, really hope that Vic is alright. Oladipo goes down with an apparent knee injury and it didn’t look good. #Pacers https://t.co/CA6LacMo87
Multiple sources provided information regarding the injury:
Ryan Wolstat @WolstatSun
Siakam originally looked angry with Oladipo, thinking he made a dirty play. Oladipo actually slipped. He’s still down. Stretcher coming out for Oladipo. This sucks.
Bruce Arthur @bruce_arthur
They put a towel over Victor Oladipo’s knee after he went down. That is bad, bad, bad.
Ryan Wolstat @WolstatSun
Myles Turner looked horrified after seeing Oladipo, that was good clue this was really bad. Brutal.
Mike Wells @MikeWellsNFL
Quinn Buckner, who is broadcasting from the opposite end of the court, said he heard Victor Oladipo scream when he went down. Scary
Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
Prayers up for Dipo, who had to be stretchered off the floor after an apparent leg injury
https://t.co/c9VJqyrkgj
In 2017-18, the ex-Indiana Hoosier star averaged 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and a league-leading 2.4 steals per game. Not only did he easily win the Most Improved Player award, but the six-year veteran was also named to the All-Defensive first team and the All-NBA third team.
Oladipo led the Pacers to a surprising playoff appearance as Indiana earned the Eastern Conference’s fifth seed with a 48-34 record. The Pacers nearly took down LeBron James and the eventual Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round but lost in seven games despite Oladipo’s 22.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.4 steals per contest.
This season started out with much promise as the 6’4″ guard averaged 22.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.7 steals in the Pacers’ first 15 games, which resulted in a 9-6 record.
However, Oladipo then missed 11 full games with a sore right knee. In his absence, the Pacers did an excellent job staying afloat with a 7-4 mark.
Oladipo returned to the court against the Milwaukee Bucks and hadn’t shown any ill effects from the knee injury since. Entering Wednesday, the 26-year-old had posted 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.7 steals for the 31-15 Pacers.
Indiana has done well without Oladipo on the floor, with Sabonis emerging as a dominant force thanks to 15.0 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
However, the Pacers don’t have a consistent primary scorer sans Oladipo, and that could end up being a problem.
Bojan Bogdanovic has raised his scoring average from 14.3 points per game to 16.0 points on 49.2 percent shooting, but he’s best used as a complementary offensive threat. Oladipo is the only Pacer capable of being the team’s top offensive weapon on a game-by-game basis.
Regardless of the Pacers’ performance sans Oladipo on the court, the hope is that the exciting young guard returns to the court 100 percent. His improvement—and the Pacers’ ability to defy expectations after the George trade—have been two of the NBA’s better stories recently.
from Daily Trends Hunter http://bit.ly/2TepSc4
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