The Pacers won the first-round series 4-2 and will face Toppin’s former team, the New York Knicks, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday at Madison Square Garden.
Toppin made 8 of 15 shots from the field, including 3 of 10 3-pointers. He added eight rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes.
Toppin credited teammate T.J. McConnell, another former Atlantic 10 Conference player who started his college career at Duquesne, for his strong performance.
“T.J. (actually helped me today,” Toppin told reporters. “Told me to be aggressive. Play my basketball.”
McConnell scored 20 points off the bench in 23 minutes.
“I just tell (Toppin) that in the open floor, there aren’t many guys in the NBA that can really challenge him at the rim,” McConnell said. “When he’s running the way he does he just takes our group to another level. He’s a special player, his ability to really shoot the ball and run and create mismatches in transition and go catch lobs.”
Toppin averaged a career-best 10.3 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first season with the Pacers after three seasons with the Knicks.
This was Toppin’s 22nd career playoff game. He scored his previous career high, 18 points, with the Knicks against the Heat on April 30, 2023.
Toppin averaged 12.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in the series against the Bucks. Indiana won a playoff series for the first time since 2014. It lost five first-round series in a row from 2016-20.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
About the Author
