The San Antonio Spurs continued to blow chance after chance at an NBA title on Saturday night. Despite taking another double-digit lead in the first half, the Spurs let the New York Knicks climb all the way back into the game again before they closed the series out in five games with a 94-90 win.
There is plenty of blame to go around for the Spurs, which is only natural for a team that lost four games in which it led by double figures. De’Aaron Fox is taking a lot of the heat for the loss after his mistakes at the end of Game 4 and then an awful Game 5, but he is far from the only player who will be looking back at the series finale with some regret.
Stephon Castle, who was excellent all season and through most of the playoffs, had one of his worst games of the year in the Game 5 loss. He scored just six points on 1-of-10 shooting and turned the ball over three times. His only basket from the field came with seconds remaining on a putback dunk off of a Victor Wemabanyama miss.
After the game, Castle talked about how the Knicks defense made it tough on him in Game 5, via Tom Osborn of the San Antonio Express-News.
“They crowded the pick and rolls a lot, made us stagnant on the ball,” Castle said. “When we tried get to isolation, they took away passing lanes too, made us play one-on-one a lot.”
There’s no doubt that Castle is a future star in the league and will be a part of an elite young Spurs core for many years to come. All of these players, including Wembanyama and even Dylan Harper, had their moments at the end of Game 5, but Castle’s brutal game will stick with him for a long time.
Spurs fans will be hoping he can use that as extra motivation and come back even stronger next season and into the rest of his career.
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