The Pacers were getting blown out off their home court by the Celtics despite starting hot Friday. It was all C’s after the first quarter as their lead ballooned to 28 points in the second half. Despite all that, veteran guard T.J. McConnell tried to show some life late in the third quarter of the Celtics’ win over the Pacers.
After Sam Hauser missed his lone 3-pointer of the night, the long rebound bounced around and ended up in Payton Pritchard’s hands. He scored the layup easily. But in the ensuing scramble, McConnell got a light push from Celtics wing Jordan Walsh. McConnell took exception to that, pushing Walsh back afterwards. It wasn’t anything crazy, but both players were assessed offsetting technical fouls after the play.
“That’s where we’re at right now,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said after the game. “That’s what we need consistently is that level of collective fight and collective will and all those things. That was great to see. Crowd got going. He got his teammates going. All that. It just can’t be one guy generating it in the fourth quarter. We’ve gotta have this at the start of games and we gotta sustain it at least at certain levels.”
At that point in the game, the Celtics were up 24 points and a Pacers comeback looked unlikely. McConnell did get a couple tough buckets to go down and Indiana showed a blip of life after the theatrics. It looked like the longtime guard was trying to get his team hyped up during a tough losing streak.
On the Celtics’ side, naturally, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla looked like he loved the play. He always enjoys the friction of competition, and the broadcast caught him giving Walsh a high five after the play. When Walsh was ejected from a Summer League game, the wing revealed that, yes, Mazzulla also loved the fight he showed there.
The Pacers have endured a tough losing season, dropping their last seven games. They’re now 6-25 for the worst record in the East, a far cry from their stunning run to Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. But injuries have decimated their roster, including to star guard Tyrese Haliburton. As the losing piles up, it’s no surprise a veteran like McConnell tried to spark some life in his teammates in another blowout loss.
“Just the energy shifted,” Pacers wing Jarace Walker said. “We’re always going to have our guy’s back. So just going out there, just playing hard, just being conscious of the environment that we’re in. The fans got into, which was great. So we just gotta figure out how to keep that intensity high without all the extracurriculars and things like that.”