INDIANAPOLIS — Early in the second quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers’ home crowd was in a bit of a lull.
After leading nearly the entire first quarter, the Oklahoma City Thunder began the second period with an eight-point advantage, a sobering continuation from Game 2, which the Thunder led for the last 38 minutes of play.
Despite it being the first finals game in Indiana in 25 years, the energy in the arena was fading.
But then T.J. McConnell went to work.
In the first three and minutes and 52 seconds of the second, Indiana went on a 15-4 run, taking its first lead of the finals since the first quarter of Game 2.
In that time, McConnell recorded four assists, three steals, two points and one offensive rebound — a scintillating stretch of play that brought a tense home crowd back to life.
“He’s a guy that inspires a lot of people,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said postgame. “He inspires our team a lot.”
“His energy is unbelievable,” guard Tyrese Haliburton said. “You guys know he’s definitely a crowd favorite. I joke with him, I call him the ‘Great White Hope.’ He does a great job of bringing energy in this building.”
“He’s just so dynamic in terms of running the floor for us,” forward Pascal Siakam added. “And when you add those steals and just bringing the crowd into the game the way he does, he was special tonight.”
McConnell’s energy boost and clutch play played a critical role in Indiana’s 116-107 win, which also gave the team a 2-1 lead in a series that few expect the Pacers to win. McConnell finished the game with 10 points, five assists and five steals, the first player in NBA history to post those numbers off the bench in a finals game. He was also a plus-12 in only 15 minutes.
Three of McConnell’s five steals came via what’s become his signature play — lurking in the backcourt and taking advantage of unsuspecting and/or lazy inbounds passes for turnovers. Two of those steals led to points for Indiana, including a game-tying bucket in the fourth quarter, and all of them drew huge reactions from the crowd.
McConnell, who is listed at 6’1”, is the shortest player on either team in the finals. But despite taking up little space on the court, and playing the second-fewest bench minutes on the team, his impact was outsized.
“In a series like this what’s so important is the margins,” Haliburton said. “You have to win in the margins. It’s not necessarily who can make the most shots or anything. It’s taking care of the ball, rebounding, little things like that. … He [McConnell] did a great job of consistently getting there and making hustle play after hustle play, and sticking with it, and I thought we did a great job of just feeding off of what he was doing.”
The entire Indiana bench, in particular, seemed to feed off McConnell.
The Pacers’ backups made a massive difference in Game 3, outscoring the Thunder reserves 49-18. Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin was the game’s leading scorer, racking up 27 points in only 22 minutes.
A 10-year veteran in his sixth season with Indiana, McConnell has always been the type of player to make the most of his opportunity. He hasn’t started more than eight games in a season since 2017, and he’s never averaged more than 26.3 minutes a night in his career.
On Wednesday, though, he changed the course of the game, and perhaps even the series.
“He’s been like a big brother to me since I’ve gotten here,” Haliburton said. “You look at T.J. McConnell and his story is unbelievable. So I just enjoy being able to play alongside him and the energy he gives his teammates in this building is — he’s a lot of fun.”
Rohan Nadkarni is a sports reporter for NBC News.