INDIANAPOLIS — Victor Oladipo suffered a serious right knee injury that could alter the season for the Indiana Pacers, who beat the Toronto Raptors 110-106 on Wednesday night.
The all-star guard crumpled to the ground with 4:05 left in the second quarter as he tried to defend an outlet pass to Toronto’s Pascal Siakam.
The magnitude of the injury was apparent almost immediately.
Trainers draped a towel over the leg, and players from both teams surrounded Oladipo as he remained down. No replays were shown on the video screen that stretches from free-throw line to free-throw line. Fans began chanting his name and gave him a standing ovation as he was carted off on a stretcher.
Team officials later said Oladipo was scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday.
“There’s no other choice but business as usual,” assistant coach Dan Burke told Fox Sports Indiana at halftime. “For 24 minutes, we have to have our focus right here. Our hearts and thoughts might be somewhere else, but we have to focus.”
Oladipo leads the Pacers in scoring at 19.2 points per game, and it appears that Indiana, which is third in the Eastern Conference behind Toronto and Milwaukee, will be without him for a substantial amount of time. He missed 11 games earlier this season with a sore right knee, and the Pacers went 7-4 in that stretch.
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