On the Pacers rising and setting with T.J. McConnell (Patreon)

And the implications and timing of how often they're relying on him to shine in standing out

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

T.J. McConnell can't typically be compared to negative space -- at least not in the artistic sense. Granted, when he doesn't have the ball, and sometimes even when he does, his defender tends to wander, but that pertains to the actual spacing of the offense. When considered from the standpoint of how he makes himself standout; it's most often for what he actively does (i.e. swirling the court into a maelstrom with his perpetual motion), not for what he passively doesn't (i.e. bending the defense while standing still). And yet, during a win in which he scored 22 points on 78 percent shooting, springing into pull-up twos like a human pogo-stick, his impact was arguably even more noticeable when he wasn't playing.

For once, after jumping out to an early lead with the starters on the floor, the Pacers didn't need McConnell to right the ship, only to stay the course, maintaining separation without flinching, even as Miami attempted to turn the tide with zone. That's what he did, and for the most part, he kept it up in the second half, rounding the edge of the defense and slinging passes to cutters with his usual brand of T.J. ball, while also receiving a few passes as the cutter, as well. When he subbed out of the game with 8:14 to play in the fourth quarter, the Pacers were ahead, 95-85. Four and a half minutes later, before the decision was made to reinsert him as part of the closing lineup, the Pacers were clinging to just a four-point lead.

Here's what happened during the interim. Suddenly, despite the fact that Tyrese Haliburton opened the game making a pair of step-back threes to his right against these very same switches from Nikola Jovic, he didn't have quite the same legs to stretch his legs -- whether backward or with any sort of forward momentum.

As such, in order to get the ball rolling downhill, the Pacers turned to a play that they routinely run for Andrew Nembhard -- all with Haliburton as the screener. When everything goes to plan, Nembhard cuts off a stagger to catch a pass from Pascal Siakam and then glides to the rim, slithering through the crack in the defense that is caused by Haliburton turning around as the first screener to receive an off-ball screen before screening for the ball. In essence, in case that explanation was TLDR, Nembhard generally has an open path to the basket because his defender opens their stance in response to Haliburton blurring in front of the ball, while at the same time, Haliburton's defender arrives late to the switch as a result of the off-ball screen.

Overall, although it also serves as a reflection of how much has changed now that Haliburton is the most credible movement shooter in the starting lineup, it's a well-designed play. That is, so long as everyone operating within the play operates as though the play is for them. To that point, just because a play is for a certain player, doesn't mean the shot has to be for that player, but they at least need to consider shooting. Here, Nembhard manages to shake Jimmy Butler, even though the dogged forward was never clipped by the off-ball pick, and also baits Jovic into releasing from the help, but then never glances at the rim from mid-range while instead eyeing the corner. Ben Sheppard, in turn, also passes out of a potential shot, squandering his shot-fake in favor of swinging the ball into what becomes a late-clock attempt from Haliburton over two defenders -- only after the star guard had taken a beat to consider his other options.

To be fair, not much of that can be described as catch-and-hold, like what happened on the prior possession against the switches, but it also isn't as catch-and-shoot, or just shoot, as it needed to be, either. A few minutes later, the Pacers turned to another pet play engineered to grease the path to the rim while also relieving some of the pressure on Haliburton. Playing out of what they call "slice," the intention is for Haliburton to toss the ball to the elbow and then chase his pass through a back-screen into a hand-off to attack downhill with his strong hand.

For point of reference, this is the vision:

Of course, that was with his defender trailing, not with the defense switching the back-screen and denying the hand-off, as Miami can be seen doing below. To his credit, Haliburton keeps playing, attempting to provide a bridge to the next action by motioning for wide-reject-stack, with him as the stack-screener. The only problem is, when Siakam attempts to go away from the ball-screen, Bam Adebayo recovers out to Haliburton, resulting in yet another late-clock three, albeit with Turner as the grenadier.

At this point, with five of their previous nine shots coming from deep and none of them going down, the Pacers decided to go back with McConnell -- not because of what Nembhard wasn't doing, but likely in view of what McConnell had already done, perhaps providing both a hot and steady hand as a counter for how Miami was relegating Haliburton into playing off-ball.

Turns out, McConnell never even attempted another shot, but he was at the controls when, within seconds of entering the game, Haliburton got to the rim, driving into a tilted defense against a favorable switch with him regrouping as the screener.

Of course, that initial alignment, with the bigs in the corners and Nesmith in the dunker's spot, had previously led to points for the Pacers without needing to regroup.

That said, Duncan Robinson was no longer in the game, forced into masquerading as a rim protector, and while Nembhard deserves some kudos for repositioning Bam Adebayo with his eyes, it also, ahem, helps that Miami's big man started out positioned in the far corner as opposed to strong-side, where he was able to plug the gap and stop McConnell in his tracks.

Otherwise, for the final 3:38 of play, all of the scoring came from the frontcourt and, mainly, the free throw line, where the Pacers outlasted the inevitability of Miami's shooting progression and Butler's sheer force of will to control their own destiny for a spot in the playoffs. In the end, the game didn't particularly hinge on what McConnell contributed during closing time, but the Pacers needed every bit of the head-start he spearheaded before closing time, and it certainly wasn't unfounded for him to be out there -- as seemed to be revealed by what stood out about the negative space (not the negative spacing) of his intervening absence. Still, just as an eyebrow deserves to be raised about why Haliburton was inbounding the ball as the team's best free throw shooter at the point in the game when Miami needed to foul, there should likewise probably be some question, while not necessarily knocking against McConnell, about the sustainability of the Pacers so often needing to rise and, in this instance, also going so far as to set on what he does that stands out.

In that regard, although some possessions also existed in which no one was guarding him above the break or the offense stalled because of his resistance to shoot from deep, if the Pacers clinch a spot in the playoffs, the bigger ask isn't what his spot will be once they get there, but rather to what degree they will continue seemingly needing him to spot them.