After tough start to series, T.J. McConnell delivers in Pacers' Game 6 series-clinching win

INDIANAPOLIS -- It is arguable which player received the loudest ovation in the waning minutes of the Pacers’ biggest win in decade. It is not arguable which Pacer received the most ovations.

T.J. McConnell left the game twice, once with five minutes remaining to substitute Tyrese Haliburton back into the game and again with two minutes left for the final time. On both occasions, the crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse cheered wildly when McConnell’s name was announced.

McConnell produced his best game – by far – of the first-round Eastern Conference series against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night in a clinching 120-98 victory in Game 6. It was nearly perfect: 20 points, nine assists, four steals and two rebounds.

Pacers score: T.J. McConnell, Obi Toppin help lift Pacers to first playoff series win since 2014

Haliburton saw it coming, too.

“I knew he was going to respond,” Haliburton said. “His wife, Val, was here. He always plays better when Val is at the game. He was a little down after Game 5; he didn’t perform like he wanted to. I just told him after the game, ‘Hey, we’re going to go home and Val is going to be at the game and you’re going to be better.' It happened, so, shout out Val.”

Haliburton’s comment fell in line with the Pacers’ mood after the team’s first playoff series victory since the 2014 Eastern Conference semifinal win over the Washington Wizards. Appreciation of the fans. Credit given to teammates. A sense that there could be more out there for this team if they can perform similarly to four of the six games against the shorthanded Bucks.

If it does, it will likely need performance from the bench – particularly from the 32-year-old McConnell and 26-year-old Obi Toppin – like it received on Thursday. McConnell, coming off by far his best regular season in his nine-year NBA career, had not performed up to that standard in the first five games of the series.

McConnell was averaging 7.4 points and 3.6 assists through five games, shooting just 37% from the field and 1-for-10 from the 3-point line.

“I think our bench took a couple steps back competitive-wise and just productivity-wise,” McConnell said. “I think tonight, all of us just had a mentality of, ‘We’re going to go out there and go to another level competitively,' and that’s the bench that I kind of saw all season. I’m really happy for every guy that has come off the bench this season.”

The Pacers’ bench outscored the Bucks’ bench 50-10. The bulk of that production came from McConnell and the 6-9 Toppin, who provided a spark in the first quarter and also played his best game of the series, finishing with a team-high 21 points and eight rebounds on 8-for-15 shooting.

Toppin credited McConnell with an assist for talking to him before the game and pouring into his confidence. But Toppin later added that McConnell does that before every game.

“I just tell him that in the open floor, there’s not many guys in the NBA that can really challenge him at the rim,” McConnell said of Toppin. “When he’s running the way he does, he just takes our group to another level. He’s a special player. His ability to shoot the ball, get out and run and create mismatches in transition and go catch lobs and getting offensive rebounds, it takes the guys out there to another level and gets the crowd involved as well.”

Toppin, sitting next to McConnell and hearing this from his teammate, smiled. “You’re special, too,” Toppin told him. A few minutes later, Toppin jokingly called him an “old man.” But that experience, which includes Eastern Conference semifinal appearances with the 76ers in 2018 and ’19 and a first-round appearance with the Pacers in 2020, works to McConnell’s advantage.

Or it least it has, all season. There were some games early in the season when McConnell did not play (six before December). But he found a role, averaging a career-high 10.6 points per game and 5.5 assists, shooting 56% from the field and 41% from the 3-point line.

Well beyond the numbers is the respect of his teammates.

“T.J. plays with an infectious spirit that I think is unmatched,” said Myles Turner, the longest-tenured Pacer. “Not a lot of teams have a guy like him. I think T.J. is just the epitome of what it means to be the undersized guy and make a huge difference. He doesn’t play his height. I feel like a lot of kids, especially back home, can watch a guy like T.J. play and see hope. Not everybody is going to be 6-11 or 7-foot tall. But you can work on our intangibles and your game. He's a perfect example of that.”

Pacers’ coach Rick Carlisle called Turner “the foundation of this effort” to win a playoff series for the first time in a decade. He ran down the list from Haliburton to Pascal Siakam to Toppin to Andrew Nembhard to Aaron Nesmith, especially the latter two guarding Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard.

Then he got to McConnell.

“Last game he had a rough game,” Carlisle said. “His bounce back (Thursday) was absolutely phenomenal. I would say in this game, he was the major difference maker with defensively intensity full court, he knocked in two 3s. He got in some difficult hoops around the basket and the crowd was going crazy. That period in the late third and early fourth quarter was something else.”

Worth an ovation. Or two.

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: T.J. McConnell delivers in Pacers' Game 6 series-clinching win