Things could be a lot worse. They could be a lot better. Can’t things be just a little better too? Alas, our heroes found themselves on the not right end of a Texas-sized shootout. Rookie phenom Stephon Castle led the team with 26 points while Devin Vassell chipped in 22 points as both players drained 3 three-pointers apiece.
I swear every time I’m assigned to a highlights article, the Spurs lose. But I shouldn’t swear because it’s uncouth to yell in a Samuel L. Jackson voice, “I have had it with these (expletive) open threes on this (expletive) court,” every time the opponent drains an open (expletive) three.
Anyway, please enjoy this block by Sandro Mamukelashvili that led to a transition three by Jordan McLauglin as a palate cleanser.
Someone call the police on Stephon Castle for stealing this hockey-behind-the-goal style pocket pass that Steve Nash popularized during his heyday in the association. Castle no doubt has come on of late with more opportunities (albeit without an increase in minutes) due to Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox hitting the long-term injury report, and it’s definitely good to see the first-year star cruise to that rookie-of-the-year award.
In a season of many, many higher expectations, Castle running away with the rookie-of-the-year-award was not on everyone’s bingo card (except mine—of course I have to keep reminding this into the void that I made the least controversial, reasonably safe, not worth a clickbait take this side of the Rio Grande river).
Unless another rookie on another team starts averaging 50 points per game the rest of the season, the Spurs suddenly have two back-to-back rookie of the year recipients (the last team to accomplish that was Minnesota with Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns).
Blake Wesley doing the opposite of Southwest Airlines by taking off for this dunk without charging us for a checked bag. Wesley’s the type of dude to stand in group B’s line even if he’s in group A.
Confession bear: I once stood in group A with a group C ticket, but the SW attendant was so nice she gave me a free drink ticket as amends for the “confusion.” That one has been weighing on me for years. I’m glad I’m able to air out my demons buried in a highlights article about a Spurs loss to the Charlotte Hornets 145 - 134 (without overtime!) in the year of our Lord twenty twenty five.
Did you know that Chris Paul has played in every single game for the Spurs this season, making him the oldest player to accomplish that mark? Did you know that you can make your own Raising Cane’s sauce with just Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, garlic powder, pepper, and salt? Both are wonderful accomplishments, but only one will save you money when you bundle your car and home insurance while the other saves you $0.39 whenever you’re craving southern-style fried chicken.
Can’t tell if Castle pretended to lose control and look like he’s about to trip and blew past his defender in doing so, or if he actually lost control and was about to trip but still blew past his defender. Either way, I cannot enjoy enough watching him take the ball to the hoop.
It’s going to be fun watching the rookie further refine his game (and maybe let the young kid ball out for more than 35 minutes at a time!).
I often wonder if NBA players have someone updating them on scores of their alma mater’s basketball team playing in a tournament during an NBA game. But if not, and you happen to be reading this Harrison Barnes, please accept my condolences on that Duke/North Carolina game tonight that was going on during the Spurs game.
Another confession bear: I used to eponymously chant “Vlade Vlade, we likes to party; We don’t cause trouble, we don’t bother nobody” (about Sacramento Kings great Vlade Divac in the style of Snoop Dogg’s “Lodi Dodi”) any time I’d watch the Kings back in the day when the Kings/Lakers heated rivalry rivaled any sports rival today, more so than Bills/Chiefs, Bengals/Chiefs, Cowboys/actually winning, Eagles/Chiefs, Cowboys/actually-paying-their-free-agents-earlier-and-not-waiting-until-price-goes-up, 49ers/Chiefs, and Nico Harrison/Mavs fans.
Not really a confession, but more a nonsensical rant to lead me to say, “Mamukelashvili, Mamukelashvili, we likes to party . . .”
If you missed the game because you were too busy calculating lottery odds (NBA and Powerball), here are the full-game highlights:
Next up, the Spurs immediately host the second leg of their back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday, March 15, 2025.