There is probably a superstition among every NBA fanbase that certain players only want to play well against their team. In fact, the concept of role players shooting the lights out against your squad is a nearly universal sentiment that likely every fan of an NBA team has experienced at one point or another. Most of the time, this is just a figment of the fan's imagination, not rooted in any actual trends or statistics. But when it comes to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Obi Toppin, there may just be some truth behind the superstition.
Wolves fans were rightfully angered this past Monday night when Minnesota failed to close things out against the Indiana Pacers at Target Center. Their eight-game winning streak was snapped by their Eastern Conference foe largely due to the hot shooting of Obi Toppin in the overtime period. It was a night where Toppin scored a season-high 34 points and made seven of his ten three-point attempts. The final of his makes was a high-degree-of-difficulty shot that certainly made Timberwolves fans at home throw their remote at the couch.
Fast forward seven days, and Minnesota was at Gainbridge Fieldhouse looking to enact some revenge on Indiana. Many undoubtedly went into this game thinking there was no way Toppin would replicate his clearly fluky shooting night against the Timberwolves from last week. After all, his three-point shooting had been below average in the Pacers' three games since the last time these two squared off, making just 33% of his attempts from behind the arc.
Obi Toppin loves making his threes against the Timberwolves
But Toppin made Wolves fans pull their hair out yet again with his hot shooting in another Minnesota loss on Monday. He scored 20 points and made six of his nine three-point attempts, crushing the Timberwolves yet again with a timely shooting accuracy that almost seems personal at this point. What does he have against the state of Minnesota?
It was just the second 20-point game for Toppin since Feb. 12, with both performances coming against your Timberwolves. To put it in perspective even more? Obi has shot 33.8% (77-for-228) in 66 games this season against every opponent not named Minnesota. Against the Wolves? He's gone 13-for-18 in two games, shooting it at 72.2%.
That one is simply a head-scratcher. It's the kind of anomaly that is not only extremely frustrating, but also very untimely as the Timberwolves are trying desperately to string together wins and battle for positioning in the West standings.
The loss to the Pacers gives them three losses in their last four, and sends them back to eighth place. 50 wins is nearly out of the picture now, with Minnesota needing to win out to achieve that mark. Several Wolves fans are undoubtedly going to be seeing Toppin nailing threes in their nightmares this week now.