Indiana Pacers forward Obi Toppin made a statement during the third quarter of Monday’s Game 1 against the New York Knicks, when he threw down a gigantic between-the-legs dunk on his former team.
After T.J. McConnell poked the ball free from Jalen Brunson, Toppin recovered the loose ball and turned on the jets. The 26-year-old shot past Josh Hart and broke free for an open dunk, and he didn’t hesitate to turn to the Eastbay when the spotlight was on him.
Toppin, who played the first three years of his NBA career in New York and is a Brooklyn native, offered Knicks fans a trip down memory lane with the highlight-reel dunk, reminding them just how devastating a finisher he can be when given some space at the rim.
NBA fans on social media were incredibly impressed with Toppin’s Eastbay dunk, and they sounded off on X in the aftermath.
Patrick Beverley addressed the incident from the closing minutes of the Milwaukee Bucks' season-ending 120â98 loss to the Indiana Pacers last week when he threw a basketball at a fanâtwiceâsitting behind the team bench.
"Unfortunate situation that should never have happened," Beverley said on the Pat Bev Podcast. "What I did was bad, and that should never happen. I have to be better and I will be better."
The Athletic's Shams Charania reported the day after the incident that the Pacers fan yelled a rather mild taunt at Beverley as the team broke out of a huddle, referring to the Bucks' vacation plans as they were about to be eliminated from the playoffs.
"Cancun ... Cancun on three," the fan reportedly said.
Beverley, however, stated there was more said than those four words before he threw the basketball at the fan.
"Let's just say it was more than, 'Cancun on three,'" Beverley said. "Let's just say it was more than that.
"I've been called a lot of stuff in this league. I haven't been called that one. ... The things that were said to me, I could've gotten four or five fans kicked out."
Beverley also stated security at Gainbridge Fieldhouse asked him if he wanted the fans kicked out earlier in the game, but he didn't want to give them the boot.
"I'm not the guy to get fans kicked out neither," Beverley said.
Beverley, 35, will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason. If the veteran finds a new NBA home by next season, he likely will serve some sort of penalty from the NBA in the form of a suspension and fine.
If you thought the United States men's basketball teamâLos Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant and friendsâwas the only cohort of American NBA players headed to the Paris Olympics, you would be mistaken.
One other ex-NBAer is headed to sports' biggest stageâin beach volleyball.
Chase Budinger, a forward for the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and Suns from 2010-16, has officially qualified for the Paris Games. Budinger and partner Miles Evans punched their ticket Wednesday, with the elimination of Americans Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb from a qualifying tournament in the Czech Republic.
A blue-chip prospect in both basketball and volleyball out of high school, Budinger chose hoops and played three productive seasons at Arizona. The Detroit Pistons made him the 44th pick of the 2009 NBA draft.
In 2018, he returned to beach volleyball, beginning a successful partnership with Evans in 2023.
Olympic competition in the sport is scheduled to open July 27.
The NBAâs Last Two Minute report from Game 1 of the series between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers is going to be a doozy.
The Knicks won the game, 121â117, behind another explosive scoring night from Jalen Brunson, who had 43 points to become the first player since Michael Jordan to score at least 40 points in four straight playoff games. But the Knicks also benefited significantly from several questionable officiating decisions down the stretch in a tight game.
The most crucial and most controversial was the offensive foul call on Pacers center Myles Turner with 12.1 seconds left. The play came immediately after a Knicks turnover gave Indiana new life, with New York leading 118â117 and the Pacers able to hold the ball for the last shot. Tyrese Haliburton brought the ball across halfcourt, guarded by Donte DiVincenzo. Turner came up to set a screen on DiVincenzo and DiVincenzo crumpled to the floor as if heâd been stuck by a cattle prod. Turner was whistled for a moving screen, giving the ball back to the Knicks and effectively ending any hopes of a Pacers comeback. (The Pacers challenged the call but it was upheld on review.)
Were Turnerâs feet still moving when he set the screen? Sure. Slightly. By the letter of the law, itâs a foul. But itâs a marginal call at best, and not the type of foul that usually gets called at that stage in a playoff game.
âI think itâs best when the players decide the outcome of the game,â Turner said after the game. âI think itâs unfortunate that it happened. We reviewed it; they still called it an illegal screen. But itâs the playoffs, man. I feel like DiVincenzo did a good job of selling it. For the most part you canât leave the game to be decided by the refs. So we have to take accountability as well. Of course itâs right after the game, Iâm a little fresh in my emotions about it, but we know, at the end of the day, we canât get to that position.
âThe Last Two Minute report, weâre all looking forward to that coming out. I think there was two controversial calls. We had to use our challenge on one call on Tyrese [Haliburton]. And then the kickball by Aaron Nesmith that was not a kickballâyou can clearly see it on the replay.â
While the moving screen call is debatable, thereâs no doubt that Turner is right about the missed call on Nesmith. With 52 seconds left to play and the score tied at 115, Brunson tried to sneak a pass to DiVincenzo in transition. Nesmith deflected the pass, but the officials ruled that he did so with his foot, which is illegal, and the Knicks retained possession. In fact, video shows that Nesmith clearly deflected the pass with his hand, but the call was not reviewable.
The blown call denied the Pacers a fastbreak opportunity in the final minute of a tied game. Instead, immediately after the Knicks got the ball back, DiVincenzo hit a dagger three. Crew chief Zach Zarba told a pool reporter after the game that the call was incorrect.
The bad calls werenât the only reason the Pacers lost. One other reason was that Haliburton made several questionable decisions in the final minutes (he had three turnovers in the last four minutes of the game). But when playing against a quality opponent in a raucous road environment, itâs next to impossible to win when you also have to overcome uneven officiating.
The other game on Monday night was equally interesting, but not equally competitive. In Game 2 of their series, the Minnesota Timberwolves eviscerated the Denver Nuggets, 106â80, to take a 2â0 lead in the series.
The result was notable for a few reasons. First of all, Minnesota was playing without center Rudy Gobert, who was away from the team awaiting the birth of his first child. Even without Gobert, the favorite to win his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award, the Timberwolvesâ defense still held Denver to its fewest points since Game 7 of the 2020 first round against the Jazz (an 80â78 win for the Nuggets).
The loss also marked just the second time during the Nikola JokiÄ era that the Nuggets lost back-to-back home playoff games. The only other time was when the Phoenix Suns finished off a four-game sweep in Denver in the 2021 second round. The Nuggets were nearly unbeatable at home during their championship run last season, losing just one game in Denver (Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat). But the T-Wolves are just that good. Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns were excellent again in Game 2, combining for 54 points on just 32 shots. Itâll be an uphill battle for the Nuggets to come back and win the series after squandering home-court advantage so dramatically.