INDIANAPOLIS — It would’ve been understandable for T.J. McConnell to buckle under the pressure and finally concede that maybe Indiana is overmatched. But it’s not in him to admit defeat, even when it’s staring him in the face.
The Indiana Pacers had fought, scrapped and clawed their way to the brink of victory Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, only to be pushed to the brink of elimination. The Celtics, thanks to Jrue Holiday’s signature steal in the final seconds, pulled out a 114-111 win to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
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McConnell’s heroics and histrionics throughout the game nearly authored a different ending, while simultaneously displaying once again why he’s annoying to opposing teams but endearing to his own. McConnell plays with a sense of joy, bravado and all-out desperation, steered by inner workings that compel him to still look at everything through a lens of gratitude and compassion. That’s why, with 1.7 seconds left in the game, moments before Aaron Nesmith missed a potential game-tying 3 at the buzzer that would seal the Pacers’ fate, McConnell needed to get something off his chest, regardless of the outcome.
He needed his teammates to understand how much they mean to him, so he leaned up against the scorer’s table, pulled rookie Jarace Walker close and told him, “I love you.” As Walker patted him on the chest, McConnell then turned to Obi Toppin and told him he loved him, too.
“Just two incredible human beings,” McConnell said of the interaction. “ … I got a lot of love for Jarace and Obi, and I got a lot of love for everyone in this locker room. One of the best locker rooms I’ve ever been in, if not the best.”
What a great moment between McConnell and his teammates. Sounds cheesy but this is why I love sports. pic.twitter.com/agwZfpQBPQ
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) May 26, 2024
As the Pacers’ backup point guard, McConnell is the connector and, at times, the conductor of that locker room — the same one that refuses to lay down regardless of the odds. It didn’t matter that two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton, three days removed from making the All-NBA third team, was unavailable due to a left hamstring strain. McConnell still believed Indiana could win Game 3, and he relayed that message to anyone in his vicinity.
When McConnell threw a pass to Pascal Siakam for a fast break layup in the first quarter, forcing the Celtics to call a timeout, he screamed at Celtics assistant Sam Cassell. When McConnell swished a fadeaway jumper over Derrick White in the third quarter and a corner 3 over Jrue Holiday in the fourth quarter, he screamed at the sold-out crowd.
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“You feel invincible sometimes,” McConnell said, “playing in front of them.”
Boston stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown agreed after McConnell outscored Boston’s bench 23-4 by himself. In addition to his playoff career-high in scoring, McConnell totaled nine rebounds and six assists in 29 minutes off the bench.
“Some of those guys turned into f—ing Michael Jordan or whatever, and you’re like, ‘Man, what is going on?’ and we couldn’t figure it out,” Brown said. “But in the fourth quarter we just stayed close enough. We stayed right there.”
Said Tatum: “They haven’t lost a home game since March 18. … It took everything for us to win this game.”
Indiana led by as many as 18 points in the second quarter and was still up by eight with 2:38 remaining in the game following a McConnell layup, before Boston took the reins and spoiled the Pacers’ upset bid. The Celtics ended the game on a 13-2 run to move within one win of their second NBA Finals appearance in three years.
McConnell, alongside second-year point guard Andrew Nembhard, nearly pulled the Pacers across the finish line. Nembhard caught fire early, scoring 21 of his playoff career-high 32 points in the first half, to go along with a game-high nine assists and four rebounds. Their overlapping big performances Saturday, against a pair of All-Defensive Second Team members in White and Holiday, once seemed unfathomable considering McConnell’s very limited minutes at the beginning of the season. The veteran received six DNPs in Indiana’s first 17 games but never complained about his role as a third-stringer behind Haliburton and Nembhard.
McConnell stayed ready, and, when his opportunities came, he parlayed them into the best season of his career. The 32-year-old averaged a career-high 10.2 points and 5.5 assists per game during the regular season, and he’s averaging playoff career-highs of 11.6 points and 5.1 assists through 16 games. Players aren’t supposed to get better in their ninth year as a pro, but in that same vein, players like McConnell aren’t supposed to be pros anyway.
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In 2015, the 6-foot-1 guard went undrafted out of Arizona. In 2024, he’s “the best backup point guard in the NBA,” according to Haliburton.
“He’s always gonna play like he hasn’t fully proven it yet,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said before Game 3. “That’s just how his makeup is. That’s how his internal motor and the fire he has inside of him operates. … He’s always gonna keep fighting like it was Day 1. That’s what makes him special.”
After Indiana fell painfully short in Game 3 on Saturday, Carlisle repeatedly vowed that his entire team would keep fighting and return “punching even harder” in Game 4 on Monday. That message wasn’t for the indomitable McConnell, who’s simply waiting for the bell to ring so he can resume this all but impossible bout. The Pacers are the first team in the last 25 years to lose multiple games in a series after having at least a five-point lead in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, according to ESPN. NBA teams are also 0-154 after falling behind 0-3 in a seven-game series. That’s not a recipe for success, though McConnell couldn’t care less.
“Obviously, this one stings, but there’s no guy in this locker room that’s packed it in,” McConnell said. “We’re gonna try to get one here and extend this series and then go back to Boston and try to make things difficult. But there’s no guy in this locker room that’s gonna quit.”
McConnell won’t allow them to.
(Photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
James Boyd is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering the Indianapolis Colts. Before joining The Athletic, James was the Indiana Pacers beat writer for The Indianapolis Star. James is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and grew up in Romeoville, Illinois. Follow James on Twitter @romeovillekid
