Bennedict Mathurin’s importance to Indiana’s playoff surge can’t be overstated. His fearlessness, his punch off the bench — they’ve been the invisible glue binding the Pacers’ surging second unit all season. And yet, tonight in Milwaukee, as the Pacers look to seize a commanding 3-1 lead over the Bucks, Mathurin will not be suiting up.

Because sometimes, the cruelest twists aren’t the dramatic ones. They’re the small setbacks that quietly change everything. The timing couldn’t be worse for Indiana. When the Bucks’ defense clamped down and turned the halfcourt into a grind, Mathurin was often the antidote — attacking scrambling closeouts, forcing rotations, getting to the line.

Before tip-off, Rick Carlisle made it official: Bennedict Mathurin, ruled out with an abdominal bruise. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. Mathurin had been listed as questionable earlier in the day. But given his rising importance to Indiana’s postseason dreams, there was hope he might fight through it. That maybe adrenaline would carry him. Not this time.

Game 4 was never going to be easy. Giannis Antetokounmpo is building another playoff masterpiece. Damian Lillard, after an abysmal Game 3, is a ticking time bomb ready to erupt. And for the Pacers, every possession was set to matter more than the last.

That’s why Mathurin’s absence hurts beyond the box score. Not just the 12 points per game he averaged this series. But the pressure he relieved, the driving lanes he opened, the restless, relentless energy he injected the moment he stepped on the floor. When the Bucks’ defense clamped down and turned the halfcourt into a grind, Mathurin was often the antidote — attacking scrambling closeouts, forcing rotations, getting to the line.

It’s also a cruel echo of last season, when Mathurin missed Indiana’s entire playoff run after a late-season shoulder injury. This year was supposed to be different. He had embraced an important role for the team in February, showing growth in both shot selection and defensive engagement — and was poised to be a playoff X-factor.

For Indiana, tonight means adjusting on the fly against a Bucks team that finally rediscovered its swagger in Game 3. But the main question right now is: What does missing tonight’s game mean for Mathurin?

A Crucial Spark Missing: Mathurin’s Growing Playoff Importance

Bennedict Mathurin’s growth this season has mirrored Indiana’s evolution from scrappy upstart to real contender.

After spending most of the year starting, Mathurin shifted into a sixth man role in February — a move that initially sparked whispers of regression. But the reality was anything but. Freed from the burden of setting the table, Mathurin became a pure disruptor: hunting mismatches, ripping through second units, injecting the Pacers’ second wave with a fearlessness that no scouting report could contain.

And in this series against Milwaukee — a series defined by violent swings and knife-edge possessions — that fearless second punch mattered. When the Bucks tightened the floor against Tyrese Haliburton, it was Mathurin who pried it open again. His aggressive drives, his quick-trigger catch-and-shoots, his knack for finishing through contact — they weren’t just bonus points. They were momentum shifters.

Now?

Now Rick Carlisle has no easy plug to replace that electricity. Aaron Nesmith can spot up. Andrew Nembhard can facilitate. But neither carries the same ignition switch that Mathurin brought every time he crossed halfcourt. Neither can bend a defense on sheer will alone.

And that’s the quieter danger Indiana now faces. Not a tactical disadvantage you see on a chalkboard — but the slow, creeping loss of pressure on Milwaukee’s defense. The way the Bucks can now load up longer against Haliburton and Pascal Siakam. The way they can recover faster, contest cleaner, trap harder. The oxygen Mathurin created, possession after possession, is gone.

But it’s not just a tactical wound. It’s a human one.

Because for Mathurin, these playoffs were supposed to be the dream made real.

After missing all of last year’s postseason with a torn labrum — after spending nights icing his shoulder, baking cookies for the team plane, watching from the sideline as the Pacers made their run — this was supposed to be the redemption. No more rehab. No more distant cheers. This time, he would be the one charging into the chaos, fearless and defiant.

“This is the moment I used to dream of my whole life,” Mathurin said before the series began. “Now I’m here.”

Only, he’s not.

Not tonight. Not when the Pacers could have used his toughness the most. Not when Milwaukee’s crowd will roar and Giannis will barrel downhill and Damian Lillard will look to erase all doubts in one savage scoring burst.

Aaron Nesmith called Mathurin a “big-time shot taker, big-time shot-maker.” Tyrese Haliburton said simply: “It’s huge having him.”

Tonight, it’s huge losing him. And the Pacers know it.

Because playoff series aren’t always lost on buzzer-beaters or blown leads. Sometimes, they slip away in the empty spaces where your heartbeat should have been. Sometimes, they turn because the player who would have taken the shot, drawn the foul, screamed the loudest in the huddle… simply isn’t there.

Bennedict Mathurin dreamt of these nights. Instead, he watches again — the playoffs marching on without him, and Indiana trying to hold the line without one of its most fearless soldiers.