T.J. McConnell Rumors

Roland Beech: Game 7 Preview — Physicality/Playing Hard Series Summary I tracked all six games so far of the NBA Finals for physicality + hard play effort using the ‘Roland Playing Hard’ framework. It’s not just about who wants it more—it’s how they show it: • Indiana leads 4–2 by game in physicality/effort "wins" • +13 Physicality wins, +49 Playing Hard Effort wins • +33 in Level 2+ force physical plays • 6 of the top 8 effort players are Pacers ...Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Haliburton, Alex Caruso the most "effort wins" TJ McConnell the top in effort wins per 36 minutes Game 7 is Sunday. If Indiana wins, don’t say it’s a fluke—say they out-worked OKC. Full leaderboard + series data coming soon.

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The Pacers are, almost magically, a win from the franchise’s first championship since its ABA days. It doesn’t happen without McConnell, whose game seems to elevate with the stakes. “It’s no surprise what T.J. does out there,” Obi Toppin, one of McConnell’s running mates off the bench, said after scoring 20 points. McConnell assisted on all four of Toppin’s 3s. “Any time he comes into the game, the crowd loves him, and he feeds off of that. He had a great start to the game, and it got us going. Brought juice into the game, energy into the game.”

New York Times

StatMuse: TJ McConnell is the first bench player in NBA history with 60+ points 25+ assists 15+ rebounds in an NBA Finals.

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He also posted, “Instead of focusing on the performances we seen from Jdub/Shai [Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander], Tj/Siakam [T.J. McConnell and Pascal Siakam], how this series is going,” Morant continued. “We say [something] negative about a city/team on a national level.” The tweet seemingly made it's way back to Stephen A. Smith, which prompted him to make a long post saying: “So this is what we’re doing now @JaMorant? I recall talking about the Finals. But the @memgrizz made news because of Bane getting traded. AND, your possible extension coming up. Would you prefer I go into detail about WTH has been going on in Memphis? Why players have stated they’re not interested in going? Or even MORE details? Or would you like me to leave well enough alone, and let the great peeps of Memphis address it on their own? Your call! I’m all ears!”

Clutch Points

The topic on the show “First Take” was about whether the team should move on from Morant, where Smith spoke about how the destination is not a “safe environment,” even saying that players have told him that. This garnered the attention of Morant, who took to X, formerly Twitter, and critiqued how the coverage is on the team rather than the current NBA Finals and even called out his “sources.” “Instead of focusing on the performances we seen from Jdub/Shai [Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander], Tj/Siakam [T.J. McConnell and Pascal Siakam], how this series is going,” Morant continued. “We say [something] negative about a city/team on a national level.”

Clutch Points

Dan Devine: Rick Carlisle on TJ McConnell: "He was great in the third. Put him back in earlier than normal. He was very tired, that's why we got him out. And I think there was a play early in the fourth where it looked like fatigue had set in there."

bsky.app

Clemente Almanza: FINAL: Thunder 120, Pacers 109 SGA - 31 points, 10 assists JDub - 40 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists Chet - 9 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks Wiggins - 14 points Haliburton - 4 points, 6 assists Siakam - 28 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists McConnell - 18 points OKC leads 3-2

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SiriusXM NBA Radio: "It’s one of the worst takes I’ve ever heard in my life." T.J. McConnell on Tyrese Haliburton being voted “most overrated” in an anonymous player poll. @TermineRadio | @Jumpshot8 | #NBAFinals

Twitter

The Thunder only averaged 11.7 turnovers this season, the fewest of all 30 NBA teams. They’re only averaging 12.0 in the playoffs, third-fewest among the 16 qualifying teams. They terrorize your offense, but also succeed because of their ball security, beginning with Gilgeous-Alexander, who only averaged 2.4 turnovers this season, fewest among the NBA’s top-14 scorers. But that was a major problem in Game 3. Their offense was careless and scattered. Those three McConnell inbound steals counted for three of the Thunder’s 19 turnovers. In their previous 18 playoff games, they never committed more than 16.

New York Times

Even though we’re just three games into the championship series, this felt like a game Indiana had to have at home if it was to have any chance of winning the franchise’s first NBA title. “I think 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. I thought he does a great job of giving us energy plays consistently and getting downhill and operating. “I mean, nobody operates on the baseline like that guy. I thought he 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.”

New York Times

Scott Agness: Pacers beat the Thunder 116-107 for a 2-1 series lead. They still haven't lost b2b games in three months — since March 10. Haliburton had 22-9-11, Mathurin scored 27 and TJM was superb. Pacers shot 51% and forced 19 turnovers. Game 4 on Fri.

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Kellan Olson: TJ McConnell is the first player to have at least 5 steals in the Finals since Jimmy Butler in 2020, per @Stathead.

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If we move off of usage rate and use the NBA’s tracking data to measure each player’s time of possession with the ball3, we see that the Pacers are not quite the socialist enterprise that usage rate makes them out to be. In fact, T.J. McConnell actually spent a higher percentage of his on court minutes with the ball in his hands (41 percent) than SGA did (39 percent) during the regular season.

Substack

Ahead of that campaign, the team organized a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to get together ahead of the season. They bonded and worked hard on the hardwood. Star guard Tyrese Haliburton and the newly-added Bruce Brown were the leaders when it came to planning that trip. Turner showed up and was struck by the attendance. “Just seeing everybody’s ability man… seeing the dedication,” Turner recalled of the team playing in the Music City. They were able to get on the same page before the season even started, and only T.J. McConnell (recently became a dad) and Daniel Theis (coming off of international play) didn’t make the trip. It was as close to a training camp as a possible given how much of the roster made the trek.

Forbes.com