'That's my job.' T.J. McConnell makes NBA Finals history off bench, sparks Pacers' Game 3 win
An eight-point deficit looked like a mountain against an Oklahoma City Thunder team that quieted — or at least subdued — the raucous Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd anxious to celebrate the Pacers' first NBA Finals home game in 25 years.
But the second quarter was a different T.J. McConnell. A Clark Kent-to-Superman turn, perhaps. Teammate Tyrese Haliburton had a different superhero name in mind after McConnell's brilliant second quarter helped key the Pacers' comeback in an eventual 116-107 win and a 2-1 series lead.
'I jokingly call him the 'Great White Hope,'' Haliburton said with a laugh. 'He does a great job of bringing energy in this building and I think people feed off that. He had a couple of unbelievable steals and in a series like this, what is so important is the margins — winning the margins.'
'Winning the Margins' might be a good title for the T.J. McConnell autobiography if he ever chooses to write one. That is where the 33-year-old Pacers' guard lives — and wins — when he is playing at his best.
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'I feel like that's my job and the job of people coming off the bench,' McConnell said of bringing energy to the Pacers' lineup. 'Obviously it goes up and down sometimes. But I liked the energy we brought, and we have to do that next game as well.'
McConnell's impact was a shot in the arm for the Pacers immediately in the second quarter. He assisted to Pascal Siakam for a layup, then stole the inbounds pass, rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Siakam and hit Bennedict Mathurin for a cutting layup.
Two minutes later, he drove baseline and found a cutting Aaron Nesmith diving to the basket for a reverse layup. McConnell was running away from the basket as Nesmith laid the ball in, then turned back when he saw Cason Wallace lob the inbounds pass to Jalen Williams. McConnell ripped the ball away, then threw it off Wallace as his momentum carried him out of bounds.
'It's just kind of a feel thing,' McConnell said of the two inbounds steals. 'If I don't get it, it's a gamble. But I was fortunate enough to get a couple steals and try to give us energy.'
Mission accomplished. The crowd was in a full roar after he fired the ball off Wallace. At the 8:58 mark of the second quarter, McConnell gave the Pacers their first lead, 37-36, on two free throws. When he subbed out with a little more than a minute later, McConnell had helped turn an eight-point deficit into a three-point lead.
Fittingly, the 6-1 McConnell closed the second quarter with an 11-foot fadeaway jumper to give the Pacers a 64-60 lead heading into halftime.
'He does a great job of getting us energy plays consistently and getting downhill,' Haliburton said. 'Nobody operates on the baseline like that guy. I thought he did a great job of getting there and just making hustle play after hustle play. I thought we did a great job of just feeding off what he is doing.'
Haliburton said McConnell has been 'like a big brother to me since I got here.' In his first NBA Finals, McConnell became the first bench player in NBA Finals history since steals were first recorded in 1973-74 to finish with 10 points, five assists and five steals.
'T.J. just brought a competitive will to the game,' Pacers' coach Rick Carlisle said. '… This is the kind of team that we are. We need everybody to be ready. It's not always going to be the same guys who are stepping up with scoring and things like that but this is how we gotta do it. We have to do it as a team and make it as hard as possible on them.'
McConnell got another steal on an inbounds pass with 8:36 left in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 95-95.
McConnell said there is a measure of risk that comes with going for steals against a team as explosive as the Thunder. But the reward was certainly worth the risk in Game 3. The Pacers needed McConnell. He responded. And the fans let him hear it.
'We hang on a lot on T.J., and he delivers for us,' Thomas Bryant said. 'It gives us extra life, whether we are on the bench or out there playing. If we aren't up to that level, we know we have to bring our level up because T.J. always brings it, day in and day out.'
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