INDIANAPOLIS — It took nearly 375 days, but Victor Oladipo is back making 3-pointers, and he did it at the most opportune time Wednesday.
The Indiana Pacers guard, playing in his first game in more than a year, made a 3-pointer from the left wing with 10.3 seconds remaining to force overtime in his team’s 115-106, come-from-behind victory over the Chicago Bulls.
Oladipo finished the game with nine points on 2-of-8 shooting to go with four assists and two rebounds in 21 minutes. His lone 3-pointer came after he missed his first six attempts, marking the second-most attempts he has taken before a make in a game in his career.
Oladipo had not played in an NBA game since he sustained a gruesome ruptured quad tendon in his right knee on Jan. 23, 2019, against the Toronto Raptors.
“It was amazing. Words can’t describe it,” Oladipo told Fox Sports Indiana after Wednesday’s win. “It’s been a hard year, really tough year. God is good man, God is good.”
Oladipo has made a 3-pointer to tie or give the Pacers the lead in the final 20 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime three times since the start of the 2018 season, according to ESPN Stats & Information. That’s tied with the tallies of Paul George and Marcus Morris for the most in the NBA, despite Oladipo’s playing in only 37 of a possible 130 games in that span.
“I just shot it man, I just shot it. Mamba mentality, Mamba mentality, Mamba mentality. That was for Kobe [Bryant], [his daughter] Gigi, all those people on the helicopter, that was for them,” Oladipo told Fox Sports Indiana of his late 3-point shot.
Oladipo arrived at Bankers Life Fieldhouse about three hours before tip-off wearing a No. 8 Western Conference All-Star jersey in honor of Bryant. The Pacers, like other teams in the NBA, honored Bryant and his daughter Gianna, who died with seven others in a helicopter crash Sunday in Southern California, with a 24-second moment of silence prior to the game.
The Bulls opened the game with an eight-second backcourt violation, and the Pacers followed with a 24-second shot clock violation for Bryant.
With fans holding up the “Ready 4 Action” signs that had been placed on their seats and chanting his name, Oladipo made his season debut with 4:12 left in the first quarter. He had four points, two assists and one rebound in a four-minute stretch before he returned to the bench as planned for the start of the second quarter.
Oladipo, after talking with the team’s staff and medical staff, targeted Wednesday as his return date based on his rehabilitation, which included some practice time with the franchise’s G-League team. His debut falls in a stretch in which the Pacers will play seven of eight games at home. Pacers coach Nate McMillan said the plan is for Oladipo to average around 24 minutes per game for the immediate future.
The Pacers don’t expect Oladipo to immediately be the same Victor Oladipo who was averaging nearly 19 points per game prior to his injury. The team knows it will take time for him to regain his form. That’s why Oladipo will continue to come off the bench through the All-Star break, and he won’t play in back-to-back games. Barring any setbacks, he will play in seven of the team’s eight games prior to the break.
“After the All-Star break, we’ll look at these games that [Oladipo’s] played, look at the team,” McMillan said. “We’ll talk with Victor and the trainers and the doctors and everyone and decide on his role after the break.”
The Pacers have the task of working their best player back into the lineup while trying to move into one of the top spots in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers went into Wednesday’s game as the sixth seed in the East.
“We’re not putting pressure on him to go out there and do anything but get a feel, start to trust your body,” McMillan said. “Work on things. Catch up to what we’re doing out on the floor. There are no real expectations.”