Obi Toppin goes off in overtime for huge Pacers win

Toppin sank a three-pointer while falling out of bounds in the left corner to give the Pacers a 132-130 win in overtime over the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was the same corner, the same fall and the same game-winner when Tyrese Haliburton beat the Bucks on March 11.

The game-winner was Toppin's fourth three-pointer of the extra period, part of a 34-point night with seven threes.

But Indiana wouldn't have even been there without T.J. McConnell tying the game at the end of regulation.

Off the bench, McConnell had 11 points and 13 assists. That's backup point guard play that almost no other NBA team can lean on. Even backup center Thomas Bryant made a three-pointer in OT, while sixth-man-turned-starter Bennedict Mathurin scored 22 points before fouling out.

Both teams had to dig even deeper on their benches after a third-quarter sequence where Rudy Gobert got a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection for slamming Andrew Nembhard, and Nembhard got a second technical and an ejection for throwing the ball at Gobert afterward. Nembhard is usually a smart player, but he should know that throwing a basketball at a 7-foot man isn't going to hurt him.

In the end, Toppin made an amazing shot he had no business making and the short-handed Pacers won a game they had no business winning. But it's also the kind of victory a team can pick up when it has nearly a dozen players who can help it win games.