Bennedict Mathurin rises up in home town to win Rising Stars MVP
The Pacers second-year guard was fully engaged in bringing home some hardware in his new home town.
Earlier in the day, Bennedict Mathurin stated his goals for the Rising Stars event was to win the MVP while leading Team Jalen to the championship.
Done and done.
The four-team event had two Elam ending 40-point games followed by a 25-point championship game. After a bit of a slow start, Mathurin got going and scored 18 points in Team Jalen’s 40-35 win over Team Tamika.
It was costly, though. Mathurin was talking all game, particularly dueling with Jaden Ivey, a player taken just ahead Benn in the draft. When Mathurin found himself at the free throw line, needing two makes to end the game, he confidently engaged the Team Tamika players to wager against him making the FTs. Paolo Banchero took him up on the $25,000 bet and Benn then missed both. The next time down the floor, he ended it with a fade away jumper.
Fortunately, each playing on the championship winning team earned $25,000 for their efforts, so after Team Jalen rallied from an early deficit to beat Team Detlef, with their G-League stars, including Oscar Tshiebwe, Mathurin was whole, again.
He was also named the MVP of the game which included Tyrese Haliburton lending a vote after calling Mathurin’s game winner on the TNT broadcast. It was a Pacers night, all around.
Oscar Tshiebwe did his thing, as well. Rebounding is his thing and Oscar collected 10 boards in the two games, while also scoring 8 points in the championship game. There was a brief moment when I laughed at considering Tshiebwe winning the MVP and going into the Pacers locker room next week. I did not check, nor will I, but I’m pretty sure Tshiebwe’s 8 rebounds in the first game was a Rising Stars record for a game. Has to be.
Regardless, Big O sent Victor Wembanyama packing in the first game. At one point, the Spurs big man tried to nutmeg Oscar with a dribble for an eventual dunk, but while the ball went thru Oscar’s legs, as planned, the Pacers big fella was too strong to let Vic get around him to finish and the ball went out of bounds. Following the game, Tshiebwe mentioned that the game was much more competitive than he anticipated and that suits his game much better than the usual All-Star up and down.
Great show and nice way to tip off the NBA activities for the weekend. The heavy snow that hit Indy on Friday evening has given way to cold temperatures, but the roads were far better this morning than when we left the Fieldhouse last night.
The All-Star teams practice Saturday, starting a 11:45 a.m. ET at the Fieldhouse. Then the attention turns to Lucas Oil Stadium for NBA All-Star Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
Benn is such a unique player. The last five players to win MVP of Rising Stars were Jose Alvarado, Cade Cunningham, Mike Bridges, Kyle Kuzma, and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Zach Levine, Jermaine Wiggins, and Kevin Durant also won this at one time. No Pacers player has ever won this award. Ever. Now, the Pacers coaching staff need to stop this stupid coming off the bench crap and start Mathurin.