Stephon Castle (5) may have helped save the Spurs’ season. (The Sporting News)
This week, Stephon Castle and Victor Wembanyama both went off for 20 or more points as the Spurs ended the Knicks’ 13-game win streak to pull within 2-1 in the NBA Finals; Mike Brown wasn’t impressed that San Antonio had three times more free throws than the Knicks in the second half; and President Donald Trump drew boos when he was shown on the Jumbotron in Game Three at MSG. Other Fantasy basketball stories we’re tracking include…
Stephon Castle’s Signature Moment
In early April, we discussed how far the San Antonio Spurs had come in recent seasons and, sure enough, they not only reached 60 wins, but enjoyed their highest victory total since 2015-16.
And now after winning on Monday, the Spurs find themselves three victories shy of their first NBA title since 2013-14. It’s not going to be easy considering they are still down 2-1 (and remain 1.5-point underdogs for Game Four as per FanDuel), but Monday’s effort definitely breathed a ton of life into this team.
And the truly ironic part here – besides the fact that the home team has yet to win in this series – is that the Spurs did a great job of negating Jalen Brunson in the first two games at home, both losses. On Monday, he broke out (11-for-25 from the field and 3-for-5 from deep for 32 points), yet San Antonio came out ahead. Go figure!
As per usual, the Spurs were led by Wemby (32 points, eight boards, six assists), but as we alluded to in the intro above, it was the other part of Area 51 that really stepped up in this one as Castle enjoyed his first signature game of the Finals with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting with two treys (including the dagger as seen in the video below) and a block.
Castle saw more action in his sophomore season, and while his touches were actually down, he improved his offense thanks to a much more efficient effort. And come the postseason, he’s taken his offensive game to new heights even if his secondary stats have all slipped.
Castle has been tasked with guarding Brunson (after taking on SGA in the Western Conference Finals), and had some real insight into what that involved, so the fact that he’s got so much left to offer at the other end of the court is truly impressive.
The young Spur two guard became more of a well-rounded threat this season, recording five triple doubles after failing to get any in his rookie campaign. What excites us here is how much better he’s shooting at the line in the playoffs as this is one aspect of his game where there’s definitely room for improvement. If Castle keeps canning his freebies at a clip of over 81 per cent in 2026-27, he’ll easily surge into the top 40 as a dynasty league option.
The UConn product has good size for a guard with the ultimate upside of becoming a less explosive version of SGA.
RotoRob Tune of the Day
Donovan’s live performances on the TV show Ready Steady Go! was what gave him his first taste of fame in 1965. Eleven years later, he released his 13th studio album, Slow Down World, which included the track “Cryin’ Shame.”