{"id":393091,"date":"2026-01-05T12:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393091\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T12:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:31:12","slug":"central-notes-mathurin-cunningham-bickerstaff-potter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393091\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Mathurin, Cunningham, Bickerstaff, Potter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> is expected to miss some time for the Pacers as he works to come back from a right thumb sprain and turf toe, writes Scott Agness of the Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re down numbers, it becomes more challenging, but we\u2019ve gotten some guys back,\u201d said coach Rick Carlisle before Sunday\u2019s game. \u201cBut now Mathurin\u2019s out for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reports (via Twitter<\/a>) that Mathurin has been trying to play through the thumb sprain for multiple weeks, but that he needs some time to heal.<\/p>\n

Mathurin is averaging a career-high 17.8 points per game for the depleted Pacers, but his numbers have dipped since mid-December, likely in part due to the injury. Over his last 11 games, he\u2019s averaging 13.5 points on .369\/.271\/.973 shooting splits.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate timeline given for his return.<\/p>\n

We have more from the Central Division:<\/p>\n

Cade Cunningham<\/a> is playing the best basketball of his career and leading the Pistons to the top seed in the Eastern Conference. One person he credits for helping him take a leap as a player and leader is assistant coach and longtime veteran Jarrett Jack, writes Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press<\/a>. Sankofa writes that upon joining the staff of former head coach Monty Williams, Williams attached Jack to the star point guard. The two do one-on-one work, pregame warmups, and talk on the bench during games together. \u201cHe\u2019s always making jokes, always being funny, talking about he could\u2019ve did this or I ain\u2019t that, whatever,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool, man. He just knows how to read the room. That\u2019s the type of stuff that allows the culture to be what it is, people like that. He\u2019s one of the main ones that\u2019s helped build this culture that we got.\u201d
\nThere were added stakes for the Pistons as they got their first road win against the Cavaliers since coach J.B. Bickerstaff came to Detroit from Cleveland, writes Hunter Patterson of The Athletic (Twitter link<\/a>). \u201cI feel like we\u2019ve got to have his back coming into here, because I know they get up to play against J.B. every single time,\u201d said Isaiah Stewart<\/a>, who started in the place of the injured Jalen Duren<\/a> and contributed three blocks and two steals in the four-point victory. \u201cSo it was important for us to get this win tonight.\u201d Coming into today\u2019s game, the Cavaliers were 4-1 against their old coach.
\nMicah Potter<\/a> went from freshly-signed to starting Pacers center in about a week. It\u2019s been a whirlwind, but his previous experience with Team USA has helped him find ways to fit in and be productive, writes Dustin Dopirak of the Indy Star<\/a>. \u201cThe confidence it gave me was like, I belong, right?\u201d Potter said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying I\u2019m going to be a Kevin Durant<\/a>, a LeBron James<\/a>, a Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, a Steph Curry<\/a>. I\u2019m not\u00a0going to be those guys, but I can\u00a0help those guys. I can find a role to create for those guys whether I\u2019m scoring or not. And that was the thing that gave me the most confidence, and I also hit a couple of shots which was really cool too.\u201d\u00a0Potter\u2019s first start came on Friday in a loss to the Spurs. He scored 16 points on 4-of-8 from three with six rebounds. On Sunday\u2019s matchup against the Magic, he had 11 points and 10 rebounds in just over 29 minutes. \u201cJust try to do my job as best I can,\u201d he said. \u201cCreate for my teammates, whether that\u2019s passing, shooting open shots, setting good screens, anything like that. Just trying to create space for my teammates and play off that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bennedict Mathurin is expected to miss some time for the Pacers as he works to come back from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,5644,19704,174375,210279,210280,210281,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-393091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","12":"tag-cade-cunningham","13":"tag-isaiah-stewart","14":"tag-j-b-bickerstaff","15":"tag-jarrett-jack","16":"tag-micah-potter","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}