What Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said when asked why T.J. McConnell didn’t finish the game
NEW YORK -- The Pacers almost always close games with the same five players who start games and with a fairly clear line of logic.
All-Stars Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam and stalwart center Myles Turner are their three leading scorers and guard Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith are their top two perimeter defenders, so that provides a balance coach Rick Carlisle likes. They haven't deviated from that mix often since star rookie Bennedict Mathurin's season-ending right labrum tear in early March took him out of the rotation.
But in Wednesday's Game 2 loss to the Knicks, the analysts on the TNT broadcast of the game -- Stan Van Gundy and Reggie Miller -- wondered why Carlisle wasn't willing to change that up considering who had the hot hands in Wednesday night's game. They particularly asked why backup point guard T.J. McConnell wasn't in the game as he had some success guarding Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson and in 23 minutes of action, scored 10 points on 5 of 9 shooting and posted 12 assists.
McConnell was +10 in his minutes. No starter was better than -9. Nembhard was -21 and Haliburton -17.
McConnell came out with 7:10 to play and the Pacers trailing by 2, and did not return. That's not necessarily atypical, but Carlisle was asked if he considered deviating from his usual plan considering the circumstances.
"T.J. had played a pretty good chunk of minutes," Carlisle said. "I considered it. But our starters have earned the trust to finish games. Nembhard is probably our best on-ball defender and we were flying around trapping too. We kinda had the kitchen sink going at (Brunson) in the fourth and they still came up with loose balls, they came up with offensive rebounds and they made shots."
Nembhard has taken on tough assignments all year and did excellent work in the first-round series guarding Damian Lillard, especially after the first two games. He also had a strong offensive night Wednesday with 15 points on 7 of 9 shooting and four assists.
McConnell has had his best year as a professional in the ninth season of his career even though he wasn't part of the rotation when the season began when the Pacers still had Bruce Brown and were focused on making Nembhard the second-unit point guard. The trade of Brown to the Raptors and the promotion of Nembhard back into the starting lineup next to Haliburton moved McConnell back into the second-unit point guard role and he earned Sixth Man of the Year votes with 10.2 points and 5.5 assists per game.
McConnell struggled for much of the Pacers' first-round series with the Bucks but had 20 points and nine assists to help them win Game 6 of that series and also had 18 points in the Pacers' Game 1 loss to the Knicks.
Not surprisingly, he stuck with the same line he has all season when asked about playing time and whether he thought he should be on the floor.
"Whenever my number is called, I'll be ready," McConnell said. "If that means I have to be over on the bench supporting my teammates, I'll do that at the highest level. Rick is a Hall-of-Fame coach. He's been doing this for a long time, so the rotations that he plays, we trust that they're the right ones. I support him and everyone fully supports him with the rotations."
The Pacers' entire bench was better in terms of plus-minus than its starting five. Forward Obi Toppin scored 20 points in 19:54 while starting forwards Pascal Siakam and Aaron Nesmith both struggled. Center Isaiah Jackson and guard Ben Sheppard also had strong performances as the Pacers' bench outscored the Knicks particularly short bench 46-12.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers coach Rick Carlisle on why T.J. McConnell didn’t finish the game
