Stephon Castle avoided serious injury after a scary second-quarter fall in the Spurs' 136-108 win over the Lakers, with X-rays coming back clean and the guard expressing confidence he won't miss much time.
The San Antonio Spurs cruised past a depleted Los Angeles Lakers squad with a 136-108 win on Tuesday night, but the result quickly took a backseat to concern over Stephon Castle's health.
Castle suffered a scary fall midway through the second quarter, sending a hush through Crypto.com Arena.
After attempting to block a dunk by Lakers forward Rui Hachimura with 4:10 remaining before halftime, Castle landed awkwardly and remained face down on the court for several minutes as the entire Spurs bench rushed to his side.
He eventually got up and walked to the locker room.
Fortunately for San Antonio, the news afterward was encouraging.
According to The Athletic's Jared Weiss and Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News, X-rays on Castle's back came back negative, ruling out any "serious" injury.
Castle was diagnosed with a pelvic contusion, but he sounded optimistic about his availability moving forward.
"I was hoping to land on my feet," he added. "It was kind of like a weird fall. I didn't expect him to [try to] dunk it. That's what messed me up. I thought he was going to go for the backboard."
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson acknowledged that Castle is likely in for some discomfort but was relieved by the initial outcome.
"His tailbone, I'm expecting to be pretty sore," Johnson said. "Probably more than pretty sore, but it was good that he walked off and didn't feel like it was anything else."
Before leaving the game, Castle totaled two points and seven assists in 12 minutes of action.
"He's not a guy we're used to seeing stay on the ground for that long," Victor Wembanyama said of his teammate. "Every second that passed, I was a little more worried. But he's one of the toughest guys I know. I'm confident he's going to come back quick."
This season, Castle is averaging 16.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 7.0 assists.
Thank you for reading us! Help us even more.
If you like our content, please click here and add us as your preferred source. It helps us a lot, and we are committed to delivering you the very latest basketball news.