Just imagine T.J. McConnell on the Western Pennsylvania playgrounds way back when. Imagine how a guy who looks like that and plays like that was regarded by his fellow competitors. Especially after he spent the day contesting every dribble, every shot, every inch of asphalt.
Long day, bro. Long stinkin’ day. No way did that go over well with his opposition. Surely somebody – or, likely, several somebodies – felt compelled to take a swipe at him when they found their patience at an end.
I asked McConnell about that years ago, when he was still a Sixer but essentially the same guy he is now, with an Indiana Pacers club that is two victories away from an NBA championship: There had to be fights, no?
“There were scuffles, but that comes with the game,” he told me. “You just move on from it.”
That, my friends, is another example of a good point guard in action: He saw a situation developing – this time in the form of a potentially thorny question – and dribble-drove around it. He didn’t turtle up, but he didn’t offer any elaboration, either. He just acknowledged what both of us knew to be true, and kept burrowing ahead.
(It also bears repeating that he’s a coach’s kid. T.J. – Timothy John Jr. – played for his dad, Timothy John Sr., at Chartiers Valley High School, in Bridgeville – about 20 minutes south of Pittsburgh.)
It should be no surprise, then, that he has continued to jab throughout his 10 NBA seasons. Or that McConnell, 33, and the Pacers scored a Game 3 TKO over Oklahoma City on Wednesday.
McConnell’s night began late in the first quarter, and it began with an OKC player slapping the ball away from him. As he ran back downcourt, he screamed at one official for a foul, then another.
Not that he ever needs to be more fired up.
By period’s end, the Pacers were down eight. They were playing hard and the crowd, which included Oscar Robertson, Caitlin Clark, Reggie Miller (in a Mark Jackson jersey) and the elder McConnell, was sufficiently enthused. But Timothy John Jr. then proceeded to ramp things up a notch. In the first 34 seconds of the second quarter he did the following:
- Fired a jump pass to Pascal Siakam for a layup;
- Stole Cason Wallace’s inbounds pass;
- Rebounded Siakam’s missed 3-point attempt;
- Feathered a touch pass to Bennedict Mathurin for a chippie.
Whoa. Now the fans were acting as if they were watching Gordon Johncock in the final turn at the Brickyard. And McConnell wasn’t done. There was also a gorgeous lefty drop pass off the dribble to a cutting Aaron Nesmith for a hoop, and a drive-and-kick to Mathurin for a right-corner triple. When McConnell nailed two free throws with 8:58 left in the quarter, Indy had its first lead of the night, at 37-36.
By halftime the cushion was 64-60, the Pacers having outscored the Thunder 40-28 in the period.
OKC came back, and was up five heading into the fourth. The spread was still two when McConnell again stole an inbounds pass, this one by Alex Caruso, and scored with nine minutes remaining. Indiana then put it away down the stretch. Tyrese Haliburton, who nearly had a triple-double, was brilliant. Myles Turner made some big defensive plays in the closing minutes, when we reached the steel-cage portion of the proceedings. And Siakam, possibly the league’s most underrated player, fashioned an efficient 21-point night.
McConnell? He accumulated 12 points, five assists and five steals, the first guy to have at least 10, five and five off the bench in a Finals game since assists and steals were first tracked. In all the Pacers’ reserves outscored the OKC subs, 49-18. Mathurin scored 27. Obi Toppin had eight, including a thunderous follow slam in the fourth.
(This side note about team building: While Mathurin was the sixth overall pick in the 2022 draft, Toppin came to Indiana from the Knicks for two second-round picks in July 2023. McConnell had signed a two-year, $7 million free-agent contract with Indy four years earlier, having played four seasons with the Sixers. You will no doubt be overjoyed to know that Philadelphia’s point guards the season after he departed were Ben Simmons, Raul Neto and Trey Burke.)
The course of the series will likely be determined by Friday’s Game 4. If the Thunder wins, two of the remaining three games are in their gym. If not, Indiana is 48 minutes away from its first NBA title. (The Pacers won three in the old ABA.)
Certainly the Pacers have shown a willingness to scrap. Certainly they are not backing down from a team that began the series as a heavy favorite. In that way, things are really not all that different than they were on those Western Pennsylvania playgrounds, all those years ago. Or so we can imagine.