Obi Toppin’s all-too-familiar dunks helped bury Knicks during Game 1 collapse

Obi Toppin once dreamed of making timely plays leading to playoff victories at Madison Square Garden, and the former Knicks lottery pick accomplished that Wednesday night against his first NBA team.

Tyrese Haliburton and sharpshooting Aaron Nesmith generated all the headlines, but Toppin registered two key dunks in overtime of the Pacers’ historic 138-135 comeback victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Toppin, the eighth overall pick by the Knicks in the 2020 NBA Draft out of Dayton, posted eight points and 10 rebounds in 20 minutes to fall just shy of his first career postseason double-double.

The Brooklyn native made up for a wide-open missed dunk in the first half of the series opener, with a put-back slam following a missed 3-point attempt by Haliburton to give the Pacers a one-point lead with 54 seconds left in the extra session.

“Just being in the right place at the right time,” Toppin said after the game. “We know if we win the rebounding battle against the Knicks we’ll be in good position to win. So I just try to crash and grab every rebound.”

Toppin also extended the Indiana cushion to three with another flush with 14 seconds on the clock for the final points of the game, capping the Pacers’ comeback from 14 points down with under three minutes to play in regulation. Jalen Brunson lamented after the game that the Knicks “should have fouled” Toppin instead allowing that uncontested dunk.

The win, which also featured a game-tying jumper by Haliburton to end the fourth quarter, marked Indiana’s third comeback win of these playoffs after trailing by seven or more with no more than 50 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter or overtime.

NBA teams are now 4-for-1,702 under those parameters in playoff history, and the Pacers have done it once in each round this spring against the Bucks, the Cavaliers and the Knicks.

“Unprecedented for other teams. But for us, we’re just going to keep playing until the buzzer, the last whistle and that’s what happened [Wednesday night],” Toppin said. “I feel like we’re just super resilient. With us, you’ve gotta play until the last buzzer goes off. I feel like everybody on this team is going to work 110 percent every single game until the last buzzer.

“I feel like that’s what happened, I feel like they slowed down at the end and we just kept it going.”

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After three so-so seasons in New York stuck behind since-traded All-Star power forward Julius Randle, Toppin was dealt to Indiana in 2023 for two future second-round picks.

The teams now have met in the playoffs in each of his first two seasons with the Pacers, who will look to grab a 2-0 series lead Friday night before the series shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Toppin has earned more consistent minutes with the Pacers, averaging 10.4 points in 20.3 minutes per game while appearing in 161 of 164 possible regular-season games.

But the former MSG fan favorite and 2022 Slam Dunk champion always enjoys returning to his hometown and first NBA home arena, especially in the postseason.

“Always fun playing back in the Garden,” Toppin said. “And definitely coming out here with a win.”