INDIANAPOLIS — Neither of Boston’s All-Star wings, 6-foot-6 Jaylen Brown nor 6-foot-8 Jayston Tatum, could stop T.J. McConnell on Saturday night. The Pacers’ pesky reserve point guard dribbled along the baseline of Game 3’s second quarter against the Celtics, sneaking around Brown and then drawing Tatum, before faking the first-team All-NBA selection out of his shoes. McConnell buried that midrange jumper en route to an energizing 23 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists during Indiana’s 114-111 loss that gave Boston a commanding 3-0 series lead.
For the Pacers to stave off elimination Monday, and perhaps without injured All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana will continue relying on the nine-year veteran McConnell, an undrafted Arizona product who became something of a cult hero among the most loyal followers of Sam Hinkie’s Philadelphia process. It was those first four years with the Sixers that persuaded Indiana to award McConnell a two-year, $7 million deal in 2019 — and another four-year, $33 million deal after that. He has been a fixture of the Pacers ever since, both before and after Haliburton’s seismic arrival, and seems so ingrained within Indiana’s fabric McConnell doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
“We feel like he’s the head of the snake,” Celtics guard Jrue Holiday said.
“He’s one of the heartbeats of that team,” Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He just makes winning plays. He’s really good at the end of quarters, which is a way that teams can keep momentum, start momentum, chip away at momentum.”
McConnell may be the craftiest in the league at slithering down the baseline like he did when he found Andrew Nembhard for the Pacers’ first 3-pointer of the game late in the second quarter. At just 6-foot-1, that area of the floor can prove treacherous, a trap waiting to be set among the NBA’s giants. Steve Nash, even at his own smaller stature, was always able to probe opponents while operating along that tightrope, and McConnell has an uncanny ability to mimic the Hall of Fame point guard in that domain.
“We speak the same language in talking about trying to manipulate the defense and trying to take up real estate, so to speak,” Nash once told Yahoo Sports about McConnell, “distorting and putting pressure on the defense and keeping your dribble…
