Three of the standout players of the game took seats at the podium following the Sixers' Game 4 win over the Celtics to avoid elimination. These press conferences are designed for those who had a major impact or big-name headliners.
Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, two mainstays of these media sessions, fielded questions together. No surprise there.
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The next interview was allocated for one player by himself.
On the night the Sixers saved their season, the microphone was reserved for T.J. McConnell.
"Got to give a lot of credit to T.J.,” Embiid said after the 103-92 victory Monday (see observations). “He came in and he changed everything."
Both McConnell and Robert Covington received news when they arrived to the Wells Fargo Center around four hours before game time. Brett Brown planned to move Covington to the second unit and insert McConnell in the starting lineup.
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The Sixers' strategy was to have McConnell defend Terry Rozier, the Celtics' feisty guard who had averaged 22.3 points in the first three games of the series. Covington, who had started every game he had played this season and was struggling to find offensive consistency in this round, could add depth to the second unit.
“He just asked me how did I feel about it,” Covington said of his conversation with Brown. “I said, ‘Coach, anything to make us win at this point.’”
McConnell got the word from assistant coach Lloyd Pierce. He had never started in a playoff game before. In fact, his only start of the regular season was back on Nov. 25.
“I just switched my mindset around to knowing I'll probably be playing a little bit more minutes and just have to be ready,” McConnell said.
A “little bit more” was actually 39 minutes. McConnell grinded it out on each possession, running the floor, getting his teammates into their sets, taking advantage of open looks at the basket, and fighting at the rim for rebounds and put-backs. He finished with 19 points, seven rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers.
“The obvious is the obvious,” Brown said. “It’s the way he plays. It’s an injection of energy that you immediately know you’re going to get with him.”
McConnell fulfilled his defensive task, too. Rozier scored 11 points, his fewest since Game 4 of the first round, shooting 4 for 11 from the field and 1 for 6 from three.
"I’m just trying to make him as uncomfortable as possible, picking him up full court and making him work for everything," McConnell said. "He’s their engine, everything goes through him, and he gets them going. I try to take him out of the play or just make everything as hard as possible.”
It remains to be seen if Brown sticks with McConnell in the starting lineup for Game 5 and, if so, how the Celtics adjust. Whatever McConnell's role is moving forward, the Sixers know what they can expect from him.
“It is just something not everybody has, that fire within him,” Simmons said. “He's not the biggest, not the most athletic guy, but he has the energy that he brings every night and is a huge part of this team. I think tonight was a night where he really stepped up and gave us the energy and allowed everybody else to really feed off that.”