Notre Dame will be represented on the court in this year’s NBA Finals.
Pat Connaughton, Notre Dame’s lone active NBA product, officially is part of a special group. His Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Atlanta Hawks in six games for the franchise’s first NBA Finals berth since 1974. He has played a major role on that journey, too, with his 21.5 minutes a game the most for any Bucks bench player in the playoffs. While he’s far from the first player that comes to mind when people think of the Bucks, he has been very reliable as part of Mike Budenholzer’s second unit.
As the Bucks and Hawks split the first four games of the Eastern Conference Finals, Connaughton mostly shined in the Bucks’ two wins over that span. In Game 2, he was a perfect 3 for 3 from the 3-point line, giving him nine points. When the series shifted from Milwaukee to Atlanta for Game 3, he grabbed a playoff career-high four offensive rebounds in an eight-board effort. However, when Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a hyperextended knee in Game 4 and ended up missing the rest of the series, many wondered whether the Bucks would get enough contributions elsewhere to get past the Hawks.
Connaughton turned out to be one of the reasons the Bucks had enough to finish the job. He turned in his second nine-point performance in a Game 5 victory. The Bucks eliminated the Hawks by winning Game 6, which saw Connaughton score 13 points, grab eight rebounds and pick up two steals. It was his most complete game in this year’s playoffs.
For the series, Connaughton averaged 7.2 points and 4.3 rebounds a game while shooting 15 of 30 (50.0 percent) from the field. In this year’s postseason, he is averaging 6.1 points and 3.9 rebounds on 45.6 percent shooting. He will hope to improve on that when the Bucks meet fellow Notre Dame graduate Monty Williams’ Phoenix Suns in the finals. More importantly, he hopes whatever he gives will be enough to give the Bucks their first NBA championship since 1971.
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