“We needed Ty out there,” Toppin told reporters after the game. “He’s been good for us all year, and for him to go down in a game like that, it sucked the soul out of us. I ain’t gonna say out of everybody, but I don’t feel like I played good because I was thinking about it the whole day, and I felt like it was my fault.”
#Pacers forward Obi Toppin on Tyrese Haliburton's injury:
— WISH-TV News (@WISHNews8) June 23, 2025
"We needed Ty out there... It sucked the soul out of us. I ain't going to say out of everybody. But I don't feel like I played good because I was thinking about it the whole day and I felt like it was my fault." pic.twitter.com/yvlMzL0bMy
Toppin’s play off the bench was a big reason the Pacers reached Game 7, but he struggled in the final game, missing all four of his field-goal attempts, including three 3-pointers, and committing three turnovers in 21 minutes.
Toppin failed to score for the first time in the postseason. He had scored in all 22 playoff games until Sunday. This was only the second time in 102 games this season — regular season and playoffs — that he did not score a point.
Toppin scored 17 points in Game 1, 3 in Game 2, 8 in Game 3, 12 in Game 4, 17 in Game 5 and 20 in Game 6. He entered Game 7 as the team’s third-leading scorer in the postseason (12.8 points per game).
Toppin became the first former Flyer to play in a Game 7 in the NBA Finals since Hank Finkel in 1974. Finkel played one minute for the Boston Celtics in a 102-87 victory against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Toppin will return to Dayton in July for the fifth straight year for the CareSource Obi Toppin Basketball ProCamp.
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