Given a chance, 76ers guard T.J. McConnell has performed quite admirably.
Because of an ankle injury to starter Sergio Rodriguez, McConnell was given his second start of the season Friday in Denver, the finale of a four-game, West Coast road trip in which the Sixers had dropped the previous three. In close to 36 minutes, McConnell produced a season-high 17 points, dealt eight assists and turned the ball over just twice as the Sixers pulled out a 124-122 win.
Just a little more than two weeks earlier, when Rodriguez came down with a stomach flu before a game in Detroit, the University of Arizona product stepped in and delivered 12 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in a 97-79 win over the Pistons.