Obi Toppin didn’t know officially until shortly before tipoff Sunday that he would be making the first postseason start of his NBA career.
But the former lottery pick made sure via his preparation in recent days that he wouldn’t be caught off guard.
Julius Randle took part in pregame warm-ups, but was unable to go in Game 1 of the second round because of the left ankle he aggravated in the Knicks’ series-clinching victory in the previous round Wednesday in Cleveland.
Toppin stepped in and scored 18 points in 31 minutes — both career-highs over 11 postseason appearances — in the Knicks’ series-opening 108-101 loss to the Heat at the Garden.
“I mean, it was always a thought. We didn’t know exactly how Ju was feeling. So, like, in my head, I thought I was starting the whole time,” Toppin said after the game. “But yeah, like I always say, the approach that I take going into every game, is the same.
“I felt good. I always feel good when I’m out there on the floor, for sure.”
The third-year forward also was the lone player on the Knicks to knock down more than one 3-pointer in the game, finishing 4-for-11.
The rest of the team combined to miss 20 of 23 attempts from long distance.
“Yeah, the 3-ball didn’t fall for us today, but we’ve got another game coming up Tuesday and I feel like it’s gonna fall for us then,” the 25-year-old Toppin said. “We just gotta go back and look at the film and be ready for the next game.”
Despite his strong outside shooting, Toppin only played the first 2:22 of the fourth quarter before Tom Thibodeau went with a smaller lineup down the stretch.
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The Knicks coach said he was “just matching up the way [the Heat] were” aligned.
And Toppin replied “not at all” when asked if he was “surprised” to sit for nearly the final 10 minutes.
“I thought he played very well. Very well,” Thibodeau said of Toppin, who also contributed eight rebounds.
Toppin, the eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft, will move back to the second unit once Randle returns, perhaps as early as Game 2 on Tuesday.
Whatever his role, the Brooklyn native said he will take a positive approach into the remainder of the series.
“It’s like I said, it’s Game 1, best-of-7,” Toppin said. “So we lost this one, but we just gotta get back to the film, see the mistakes that we made and fix them.”