INDIANAPOLIS — One yr in the past, Josh Hart provided what most likely sounded to some like an insult.
However coming from a consummate irritant like him, it was meant as the last word praise.
Hart labeled veteran Pacers guard T.J. McConnell “an annoying little sh-t” throughout final yr’s second-round playoff sequence towards the Pacers, and that description actually has held true via the Knicks’ two dwelling losses to Indiana to start out this yr’s Jap Convention finals.
McConnell, a 10-year NBA veteran who appears to typically discover a strategy to affect video games towards the Knicks, scored 10 factors in 14 minutes off the bench in every of the Pacers’ two wins at Madison Sq. Backyard earlier than the sequence shifted to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for Sport 3 on Sunday night time.
“Our bench has done a really good job. I thought McConnell was terrific,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle stated after Sport 2. “Right now of yr you need to play with a sure angle, you need to play with a defiance.
“It’s kind of defined T.J.’s 10-year career in the NBA. He’s done a great job throughout the playoffs of playing his game and not allowing some difficult situations to deter him from keeping his focus on what he needs to do to help the team. So I thought he was a real key (to the first two games), and we’re gonna need the same effort from everybody when we go home.”
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Throughout final yr’s postseason assembly, Hart had made the comparability between himself and the undersized McConnell, noting that each gamers have been recognized to get beneath their opponents’ pores and skin.
Hart additionally joked that he’s “a little taller, more handsome, with better taste in wine and probably [play] golf better.”
However he additionally referred to as the 33-year-old McConnell “one of my favorite people in the league,” and stated they typically commerce bottles of wine when they’re within the different’s respective metropolis.
“T.J. McConnell is an annoying little s–t that just runs around, causes chaos, picks up 94 feet [defensively], someone that plays the game of basketball extremely at a high level, competitive as hell,” Hart stated on the time.
“So we all know as soon as [starting point guard] Tyrese [Haliburton] goes [to the bench], it’s not like we are able to sit there and calm down. You’ve received somebody in T.J. who may very well be a place to begin guard for another group on this league.
McConnell sometimes was a nuisance at each ends of the ground throughout final yr’s seven-game elimination of the Knicks, averaging 11.9 factors and 6.0 assists in 20.6 minutes per recreation, together with 18 factors in Sport 1 and 12 dimes in Sport 2.
“He is someone who is doubted, he doesn’t pass the eye test,” Hart added. “But he’s someone who’s extremely gritty, he’s someone who can go out there and get you 20, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals and pick up 94 feet. So that’s definitely — we have a lot of comparisons, obviously.”
