INDIANAPOLIS – Over the course of a 10-year NBA career, T.J. McConnell has played in some crazy games. Weird games. Wild games. Terrible losses. Crazy comebacks.
But nothing like the Pacers’ first-round series-clinching 119-118 Game 5 overtime win over Milwaukee on Tuesday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Pacers outscored the Bucks 8-0 in the final 40 seconds of overtime to close out the series, 4-1.
“This is my 10th year in the NBA, and I’ve never been a part of a game like that,” McConnell said. “But credit our guys for finding ways down the stretch to continuing to answer the bell. They kept punching and just when you thought it was over, we made big plays.”
McConnell made his share. When he left the game, in fact, it appeared he might be the hero — or at least one of them — after the Pacers rallied from a miserable start that put them in a 20-point hole. McConnell’s drop-off pass to Myles Turner for a two-hand dunk put the Pacers ahead by five points with 8:31 left in regulation and sent the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd into delirium.
That came at the end of a six-minute stretch that saw McConnell account for 12 points and two assists from the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth. During that same period, the Pacers went from down five points to up by five. When McConnell was subbed out for Tyrese Haliburton with 7:58 left in regulation, the Pacers fans stood and cheered the efforts from the 33-year-old guard.
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“I was just trying to attack and get downhill,” McConnell said. “Just see what they were giving me and if they didn’t step up, get my mid-range and if it was open for 3, shoot it. When they rotated, I was just trying to find guys and just let the game come to me.”
There were several more chapters to the Game 5 story after McConnell’s exit. Immediately after he left, the Bucks wrested control back with a 9-0 run and took a 94-89 lead on a 23-foot 3-pointer by Gary Trent Jr. with a little more than five minutes remaining.
The Pacers rallied again, going ahead on a basket by Aaron Nesmith, whose fingerprints were all over the series-clinching win. The 6-6 Nesmith not only took his turn trying to slow down Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he also contributed 19 points and a team-high 12 rebounds.
In the locker room, about 15 minutes after the game was over, Nesmith’s heart was still racing.
“Special, surreal, the most exciting game I’ve been a part of,” Nesmith said. “I’ll remember that one, for sure.”
The Pacers almost seemed bound and determined lose it — several times. But the Bucks kept leaving the door open, even after Trent Jr.’s third 3-pointer of overtime sent some fans starting to head for the exits. When A.J. Green made one of two free throws to put the Bucks ahead 118-111 with 40 seconds left in overtime, a Game 6 in Milwaukee on Friday appeared to be all but certain.
“It would have been pretty deflating as a group to not be able to close them out at home in front of our fans and then have to go back to Milwaukee, which is a really tough place to play,” McConnell said. “We’re just very fortunate to have closed them out here and now we’ve got to move forward and get ready for Cleveland.”
McConnell and Nesmith are two drastically different players but both, in their own ways, make the Pacers a dangerous team for the top-seeded Cavaliers, or any other team in the playoffs. Haliburton’s overtime heroics, including his go-ahead layup with 1.1 seconds left in overtime following a Bucks’ turnover, will be remembered from this series. But the Pacers do not get there without the energy and production from McConnell and Nesmith.
“From one through 15, everybody contributes differently and everybody knows their roles,” Nesmith said. “There’s no other team in the league that plays the way we play.”
Metta World Peace, the former Ron Artest, was in the building Tuesday night. He was known as one of the toughest players in the history of the franchise. Nesmith shares some of those same qualities.
“We got to see (Metta), obviously he got introduced during the game, he came in afterwards, said hi to the guys,” Pacers’ coach Rick Carlisle said. “Metta now, as he’s known, was one of the toughest guys I ever saw in this league ever. Aaron displays a lot of those attributes as well.”
In overtime, Nesmith drilled a 3-pointer with 1:40 left to bring the Pacers within three, then maneuvered for a tip-in on the next possession to cut the Bucks’ lead to one.
“We called timeout (and) we put him in a stack action, and he delivered a 3 just like that,” Carlisle said. “That was a huge play. He had a tip-in late and he’s involved in a lot of loose ball plays. He’s involved in the play in Game 4 which was a defining play as well. A chase-down block on Portis turns into an and-1 at the other end. It really was a big part of the run we made in the second half. He’s a warrior type player.”
Teammate Myles Turner joked of Nesmith that “the dude is just made of vibranium.”
“He’s country strong, whatever you want to call it,” Turner said. “Fights over every single screen. He communicates. He’s taken his offensive game to a completely new level. There’s times in the past where he would put the ball on the floor and we’d be like, ‘uhh …’ Now we encourage him to do it. He gets downhill. He makes good decisions. He’s been very solid for us so far in these playoffs.”
McConnell scored 18 points in just 17 minutes, going 7-for-11 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. When the Bucks called timeout after McConnell’s offensive outburst ended with Turner’s dunk, McConnell chest bumped Turner’s father, David, in the corner of the court as the fans went wild.
“He’s a pest, bro,” Turner said of McConnell. “He’s somebody you love to have your team and hate to play against him. He can really change games. He came in confident. He hit his shots, got guys open, got me a big dunk, was able to chest bump my pops. That was dope. Stuff like that. He’s just a sparkplug. Someone I’ve been playing with for a long time. Nothing really surprises me. He’s just made for these moments.”
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