Make New York Post a Preferred Source Stephon Castle apparently wasn’t feeling the heat in Madison Square Garden.
Castle, who shot 37.7 percent from the field in the Knicks’ five-game NBA Finals series win, said he was unfazed by the Knicks in Games 3 and 4.
“It was underwhelming in that first game,” Castle said of the MSG crowd. “They made it seem like it was going to be way crazier in there.”
Castle did have his best game of the NBA Finals in Game 3, shooting 8-for-14 (57.1 percent), scoring 23 points and adding five rebounds and five assists in a 115-111 victory for the Spurs.
Knicks fans were rabid during a wild NBA playoff run. Aristide Economopoulos for NY Post “OKC was way louder than MSG,” added Castle, in reference to the Spurs’ prior Western Conference Finals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Though, that was the Thunder’s only victory in the series, as Oklahoma City blew both games at home and were down 0-2 going into Game 3.
The comments are at least a little surprising, though, as the Thunder appeared to be seriously rattled by the environment at MSG as they blew a 29-point second half lead, as the score was 81-52 with 9:40 left in the third quarter before the roof caved in on Mitch Johnson’s group.
After OG Anunoby’s game-winning tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining in Game 4, a star-studded Knicks fanbase littered with stars off the court, including Jerry Seinfeld, Taylor Swift, Larry David, and many more, were stunned on the court to see what had transpired.
After the Game 4 collapse, Spurs players were left stunned looking for answers, with even star player Victor Wembanyama admitting that the team lost its hunger after taking a big lead.
Stephon Castle admitted that the Madison Square Garden faithful were not loud. Jason Szenes for The New York Post “It was painful, of course. It feels like we worked too hard and give up our leads. It’s as simple as that. It just hurts.” Wembanyama said at the time. “We clearly weren’t the most hungry in the second half… I can’t really explain it right now. I don’t know. I think it’s just execution, greediness of some sort. Stopped moving the ball. Stopped executing.”
The Spurs were among the youngest teams in the NBA last year and head into the new season with a still young cast but more battle-tested than in years past having eliminated the Thunder in the playoffs and leading in every NBA Finals game.
