Normally, it’d be sacrilege to root for the Pacers — especially an Indiana team that eliminated the Knicks in consecutive years.
But these circumstances compelled treachery from New York to every city outside of a small pocket in the southwest. Nobody expected the Pacers to get to the NBA Finals, let alone reach Game 7. They were Cinderellas, and then they were flirting with a new Disney movie script after Tyrese Haliburton’s Achilles exploded in Sunday night’s first half.
But their magic ran out in the second half of the Thunder’s crowning victory, 103-91. The Pacers hung around longer than most thought possible, taking a one-point lead into the break and riding, appropriately, their bulldog backup, TJ McConnell, in a spirited third quarter.
McConnell is the embodiment of an underdog. He’s small, he went undrafted, he has never even dunked in the NBA. And in Game 7 of the Finals, McConnell stepped into Haliburton’s spot and dropped all of his 16 points in the third quarter.
