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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowCorrection: The headline on the original version of this story mistakenly said the Pacers eliminated the Bucks 3-2 instead of 4-2.
T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin complemented one another’s play perfectly Thursday night after coming off the bench.
They were still trading fist bumps long after the Indiana Pacers celebrated a series-clinching victory in Game 6. After first-round losses in their last five playoff appearances, the Pacers rode hot shooting and solid bench play to a 120-98 victory Thursday night over the Milwaukee Bucks before 17,274 fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Toppin scored 21 points, McConnell added 20 points and nine assists to lead the rout and missed only two of his nine shots.
The Pacers will face New York—a 118-115 winner over Philadelphia late Thursday—in their first Eastern Conference semifinal in a decade. The Knicks topped the 76ers in six games.
Game 1 of the Pacers-Knicks series will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday in New York, followed by Game 2 Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., also in New York. Games 3 and 4 will be in Indianapolis, on Friday, May 10, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 12, at 3:30 p.m.
“It means a lot,” McConnell said. “Not getting into the playoffs since the bubble, not being able to advance since 2014, we take great pride in being able to advance and extend our season. Milwaukee has a great team and, if I can be honest with you, I think our bench has taken a couple steps back competitive wise and I think tonight all of us went out there with the mentality we’re going to take it to another level.”
Did they ever.
Nobody was better than McConnell. He finished with a playoff career best scoring total while matching his playoff career high in assists and coming up four steals—all following a dismal Game 5 in Milwaukee.
But McConnell wasn’t going to allow one bad game to derail this milestone moment for Indiana. The 4-2 series victory came exactly 30 years after Indiana won its first NBA playoff series, a 3-0 sweep over Orlando.
“T.J. actually helped me today, told me to be aggressive, told me to be myself,” said Toppin, who also produced a playoff career high scoring total. “Everybody did their jobs today, from the starters to the bench, everybody had a good game.”
The short-handed Bucks also played again without two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who never returned to action after straining his left calf April 9.
Damian Lillard, meanwhile, returned from a strained right Achilles tendon and played well enough — but was not nearly as dominant as he was in the first two games when he scored 69 points. Lillard finished with 28 points on 7-of-16 shooting.
“I don’t think I would have slept well and I don’t think I would have gone into the summer well, if I didn’t at least try,” Lillard said. “I came in for my pregame workout and saw all the gold shirts on the chairs and started moving around and said, ‘Let’s just do it.’”
Bobby Portis Jr. added 20 points and 15 rebounds for Milwaukee while Brook Lopez had 20 points and Khris Middleton had 14 points and eight rebounds.
Two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton finished with 17 points, 10 assists and six rebounds for the Pacers while Pascal Siakam added 19 points and seven rebounds.
Indiana went 8-3 against Milwaukee, which made its second straight first-round exit. It was the first under coach Doc Rivers — the Bucks third coach in 12 months.
“They’ve created a hell of a team, not only young, I think the Siakam trade really will change their fortunes going forward,” Rivers said. “They’re just a tough team. Obviously, we had guys out and all that, and that’s hard, right? But let’s give them credit. I thought they played terrific.”
The 2021 NBA champs certainly weren’t going to let Indiana close it out easily, and they didn’t.
Yes, Indiana turned the game with a 23-3 first-quarter spurt that gave them a 29-19 lead that they never surrendered. But the Bucks kept charging back, and the Pacers kept responding.
When Milwaukee cut the deficit to 38-34 early in the second quarter, Indiana scored seven straight points. When the Bucks opened the second half on a 9-4 run to close to 63-56, Indiana responded with a 10-5 run to extend the margin to 12.
And when Milwaukee got as close as 85-78 with 6:05 left in the third, McConnell capped an 11-0 run with back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 96-78 early in the fourth.
“The games we won, we dictated the pace,” Haliburton said. “So we knew we were going to have to come out and be aggressive.”
The Bucks never recovered from Indiana’s last big surge, which extended the margin to as much as 104-84 with 8:07 to play while setting off a party-like atmosphere inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse as the crowd sent the Pacers off with a standing ovation.
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So happy for the franchise and the fans. After the poor performance in game 5 I wasn’t sure what we were gonna see tonight. The players were very resilient and deserved the dominant win. Let’s hope we see the Knicks. That will be an electric series. Spike Lee is so yesterday
4-2 series win.
In spite of what the organization and media want to promote, TJ McConnell is the most valuable player on this team. When it comes to ‘running the team’ TH isn’t even close. Secondly, this organization has avoided dealing with adequate size, height and girth down low. Their defense and rebounding around the basket is nearly non existent. This entire year the ‘2nd squad’ has allowed this team to win games. Without Toppin, NeSmith and McConnell they wouldn’t be where they are tonite. Congratulations.
Mconnell is ok he isn’t a great player but he gets overlooked and he’s able to get a few quick easy baskets while nobody is paying attention.
Let’s get serious. I’m a huge Pacer fan. I don’t have cable. I pay Bally Sports, so that I can watch every game. Now there is no local broadcast for this serious until game 4 on ABC. How can I watch the first 3 games???? Please help.
series