Pat Connaughton faces the Suns — and doesn’t blink.
Planet Pat is now Playoff Pat. Scrappy, athletic, tough and fearless, the 6-foot-5, 209-pound shooting guard Pat Connaughton has, in this 2021 NBA Finals and playoff run for Milwaukee, scored on the backdoor and pulled up on the monstrous three.
He's snuck inside for the reverse and come away with the offensive rebound and putback. He drives to score.
But his calling card? The thing he does more willingly than anyone? Get to the loose ball.
The internal radar on Connaughton can scope out the non-possessed basketball at any time and he's athletic enough to be the first, or one of the first, to get to it. For someone who takes pride in hustle stats as much as Connaughton, this one is near the top of the list.
But this kind of ferocious play from the Boston native and Notre Dame Fighting Irish graduate comes with a price, and a lot of times it's his face: tak
ing an elbow to his eye, a hand across a cheekbone, a forearm on his nose.
He's lucky that all he's needed this summer is an eyelid glued together, and has not suffered a broken nose.
“I drank a lot of milk as a kid so maybe I can get on a Got Milk? commercial at some point,” said Connaughton. “I definitely took quite a few (shots to the face). I've got to be careful what I say based off the whistle on some of the facial shots that I took and who got called for the foul and who didn't.
“But I think it's just part of the game. It's physical. It's a contact sport. It's fast moving. You don't always see it coming. Maybe my reflexes could be a little better or maybe it wakes me up a little bit and gets me more into the game.”
It also means that Connaughton's contributions cannot be measured by the standard statistics: 10 points, 4 rebounds and 1.7 assists in the NBA Finals, which resume for Game 4 against Phoenix on Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.
“I just love Pat,” said Bucks forward P.J. Tucker. “Pat is one of those guys, like you've got to have guys like that on your team. Pat is like essential, you know? It's a guy that — kind of like me, where you don't got to run any plays for him. You don't got to do anything for him.
“He's going to mix it up. He's going to offensive rebound. He's going to go after every ball. He's going to be all over the place, and you just know when he goes in the game, he's going to put in a thousand percent. He's going to give you everything he got, good, bad.
“You can only appreciate guys in this league like that because there's not a lot of guys that can do it night in and night out, and Pat is one of my favorite guys.”
It seems like a lifetime ago that Connaughton and George Hill led the Bucks' Bench Mob – a phrase Connaughton came up with once in an interview that was quickly turned in to a T-shirt slogan.
In 2019 the Bucks played drastically differently than now; the starters had plenty of sub-30 minute games and the rotation was 10 deep. Connaughton played with the likes of Ersan Ilyasova, Donte DiVincenzo, Sterling Brown, Nicola Mirotic and Tony Snell.
Now he's the last one left; DiVincezo has “graduated” to the starting lineup, as Connaughton put it (though DiVincezo is injured now); and Tucker has replaced DiVincenzo as starter. It's been up to Connaughton to bring that Bench Mob energy and spark with Bobby Portis as well as Jeff Teague and Bryn Forbes.
“I would say it's what the Bench Mob represented and keeping that alive,” said Connaughton.
“Back in my first year here, the whole goal of the bench mob was to have the certain things that we brought consistently on a nightly basis and then fill in where needed throughout the course of the game to help us win the game and do whatever it took.
“That defense, the hustle plays, the energy — that's kind of what I've tried to keep on. You look at Bobby, he kind of epitomizes what the Bench Mob is. There are nights where he scores a ton but he brings the energy on a nightly basis and that's why the arena loves him and that's why the chants of "Bobby" happen, but that's what epitomizes what a Bench Mob member is and that's what I want to make sure I always bring to the table.”
It's not gone unnoticed. As Connaughton's minutes have increased with every playoff series – from 17 to 20 to 25 to 30 minutes in the Finals – he's been able to contribute more to the Bucks' advantages.
“You have to keep those guys off the glass,” said Phoenix coach Monty Williams. “Connaughton, he's coming every single time. P.J. is a big, strong dude, and he finds a way.”
After a solid Game 1 in the Finals, Connaughton had an even better Game 2 with 14 points, including 4 threepointers and seven rebounds. The Suns won both of those games.
In Game 3, Connaughton drilled 2 three-pointers that drained the life out of the recharging Suns in a dominant 20-point win for the Bucks. One three was with 1.6 seconds left in the third quarter and lifted Milwaukee to a 98-76 lead.
There's a lot of basketball left and the Suns are talented, deep and extremely driven. Nothing should be counted before it happens. But, what if the Bucks actually come back from an 0-2 Finals deficit and win this thing? It would be very good for Connaughton, not just for his basketball career, but for the real estate and investment business that he launched here in Milwaukee.
“Winning a championship in Milwaukee, it's not about my other business. It's about bringing the notoriety to a great city,” said Connaughton. “It's been an underrated city. It's been obviously your, 'small market' city. But for people across the world to see what it's like in the summer, to see what it's like as a community, to see the togetherness that the Milwaukee Bucks bring to the city of Milwaukee and the support that the city of Milwaukee in turn gives us, which makes us want to play so hard and represent them so well.
“It's great to see the growth around the city. It's great to see obviously the building of Fiserv Forum, it's great to see the businesses come downtown, it's great to see the development that you see across the city, and I'm just fortunate to continue to invest in the city and be a part of that.”