INDIANAPOLIS — T.J. McConnell chuckles at it instead of taking it as an insult, the whole “great white hope” thing assigned to him by Tyrese Haliburton. But it seems to work in Indianapolis.
If it was an inside joke, it made it to the outside world on the NBA’s biggest stage.
“No, it’s funny because all year he’s been saying it’s [Pacers rookie Johnny] Furphy,” McConnell told Yahoo Sports. “So the fact that he brought it back up, I guess he said there’s, like, a transition period from me to Furphy.”
If he keeps having nights like Game 3, giving the Oklahoma City Thunder nightmares with their eyes open, any nickname will do. Whenever it seemed like the Pacers were in a lull and in need of a spark, there was McConnell with one of his three backcourt steals. He had five overall as the Pacers took control of the Finals with a 116-107 win at home Wednesday night.
“We need all of our guys to bring whatever is their thing to our thing and have it be part of our thing, you know,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Wednesday night. “But he’s a guy that inspires a lot of people. He inspires our team a lot.”
He played only 15 minutes, but it felt like he was out there all night, as he made every minute count, scoring 10 points with 5 assists and being a plus-12. He was the first bench player ever to record 10 points, 5 assists and 5 steals in an NBA Finals game since the league started recording steals in 1973-74. His plays got the crowd energized after moments of nervous energy that was palpable in the building.
“It’s a feel thing when I’m trying to inject energy into the game and get the crowd involved,” McConnell said. “And you know, when our crowd’s into it, they’ve willed us to wins throughout the season.”
It was McConnell and Bennedict Mathurin providing the extra energy while the Thunder players looked a bit on the fatigued side. Mathurin scored 27 points in just 22 minutes of game time, and Obi Toppin had an arena-shaking follow-up dunk late that seemed to declare matters for the night.
Mathurin’s playing time has increased in every game, but there’s always a looking-over-your-shoulder feeling for reserves.
“I feel like it’s a going-down-swinging-type thing, where you have to play fearless and mistakes are going to happen,” McConnell said. “So there’s a point in the game where you want to be in there, but it’s time for the starters to come back in.
“Obviously, as a competitor, you want to play. So I try to tell the guys, you know, we just need to go out there and do our job for whenever we’re out there.”
McConnell has gotten votes for Sixth Man of the Year twice during his six years with the Pacers, after being in Philadelphia for four years during the “Process” era for the 76ers. That makes him among the most experienced players on this team. That makes him valuable.
“Besides Pascal [Siakam] and Thomas [Bryant], none of us have Finals experience,” McConnell, 33, said. “So obviously, very grateful to be here and play in front of that crowd like we did yesterday. We’re excited, but we know there’s still a lot of work left.”
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