{"id":69411,"date":"2025-06-01T03:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/69411\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T03:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:35:10","slug":"former-sixers-guard-tj-mcconnell-headed-to-finals-as-pacers-beat-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/69411\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Sixers guard TJ McConnell headed to Finals as Pacers beat Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/philadelphia-76ers\/20\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Philadelphia 76ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> guard TJ McConnell has had to earn every opportunity he&#8217;s gotten in the NBA. He went undrafted out of Arizona and received a chance with the Sixers in the 2015-16 season and spent four seasons with Philadelphia as a champion of The Process era.<\/p>\n<p>After his successful run with the Sixers, he signed with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/indiana-pacers\/11\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Indiana Pacers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Indiana Pacers<\/a> in the 2019 offseason and has been a reliable piece of the rotation. He has made a difference in plenty of games for the Pacers and on Saturday helped Indiana finish off the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/new-york-knicks\/18\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New York Knicks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New York Knicks<\/a> in the Eastern Conference finals 125-108 in Game 6.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>McConnell played 13 minutes off the bench and had three points, four rebounds, and two assists, and made scrappy plays all night. It was a performance that he has become known for in his career and he was a thorn in the side of the Knicks all series long.<\/p>\n<p>McConnell and the Pacers will face off against the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/oklahoma-city-thunder\/25\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Oklahoma City Thunder;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> in the NBA Finals starting on Thursday from the Paycom Center. The Thunder, led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, also feature another former Sixers guard in the form of 2020 second-round pick, Isaiah Joe.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/sixerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/sixers\/2025\/05\/31\/former-sixers-guard-tj-mcconnell-headed-to-finals-as-pacers-beat-knicks\/83973624007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Former 76ers guard TJ McConnell headed to Finals as Pacers beat Knicks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Former 76ers guard TJ McConnell headed to Finals as Pacers beat Knicks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Philadelphia 76ers guard TJ McConnell has had to earn every opportunity he&#8217;s gotten in the NBA. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,2955,126,1624,16451,6,191,179,678,207,3817,209,5643],"class_list":{"0":"post-69411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-eastern-conference-finals","11":"tag-indiana-pacers","12":"tag-isaiah-joe","13":"tag-john-mcconnell","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-york-knicks","16":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","19":"tag-philadelphia76ers","20":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","21":"tag-tj-mcconnell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114606016110722427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}