Anyone who has watched the NBA for a few years knows not to overreact to career nights. It’s immensely fun to watch someone perform at or near the peak of their abilities, but it often doesn’t mean much. Those outlier games are often a combination of opportunity, circumstances, and a little luck.
Recently, the Jazz’s backup point guard, Isaiah Collier, dropped 22 dimes on the Pacers. Only John Stockton has had more in a game for the franchise. Does that mean Collier is as good as Stockton? Obviously
not. He just got to play all 48 minutes for a shorthanded team, and it’s unlikely he will ever log 20 helpers again in his career, while Stockton has several such performances despite playing in a slow-paced era. It’s still impressive. It was fun. It shows that Collier can be a prolific playmaker given the opportunity. But extrapolating that night and projecting stardom for him would be as silly as believing Julian Champagnie’s 11 three-pointers in a game means he’s the second coming of Reggie Miller. Cautious optimism after career nights is warranted, but sometimes Corey Brewer will drop 51 before returning to his normal career path.
The point here is that Stephon Castle’s 40-12-12 historic triple-double doesn’t need to be assigned special meaning. It can just be enjoyed for what it was: an electrifying performance from one of the league’s best young players. For fringe guys or role players, career nights can be used as a reminder that they can produce more in better circumstances. They can even, often retroactively, serve as signs that there was more to their game than originally thought. Sandro Mamukelashvili’s explosion against the Knicks late last season might have shown that he was ready to make the leap as a shooter we’ve seen from him in Toronto. But Castle doesn’t need to prove anything. He showed star potential as a rookie and has produced like one as a sophomore. If he had finished with, say, a 25-7-8 stat line, the Spurs and their fans should have been just as excited about his future.
With the Castles of the NBA world, it’s the little things, the boring stuff that arguably matters more. The basketball nerds among us will remember the windmill dunk, but also how the Mavericks tried putting their center on him to start the game and then played off of him, daring him to shoot, and how he made them pay by both making threes and, more encouragingly, making quick decisions like stepping into a mid-range jumper or trying a pitch pass and then screen for one of his teammates. The highlights will show him skying for a monster putback dunk, but not necessarily the consistent defensive effort and intensity he displayed all game, a trait that could make him one of the premier two-way forces in the league.
Castle did Castle things against the Mavericks, the kind of spectacular, winning plays he’s made routinely this season. He just did more of it, and in a way that made a random February game one of the most fun Spurs viewing experiences of the last few years. It’s incredibly entertaining to witness amazing performances as they happen and completely fine to feel giddy about them as we rewatch the highlights the next day. But fortunately, Stephon Castle has done enough already that he doesn’t need the help of any arbitrary statistical performance to give anyone a reason to be optimistic or show he could be a legitimate star, likely sooner rather than later.
Takeaways
- Carter Bryant could have been the main character of this one had Castle not made history. The rookie shot with confidence, skyed for rebounds, and emphatically swatted shots, continuing to show that the game is slowing down for him. His length and athleticism have always been impressive, but he looks more and more like he belongs on the floor. Those minutes Mitch Johnson force-fed him while he was looking lost seem to be paying off, so credit where credit is due.
- Now that Johnson and Bryant have received their praise, let’s get to the important stuff: Bald Watch. De’Aaron Fox said three weeks ago that if Bryant missed three more dunks the rest of the season, he’d have to shave his head. I don’t think he had missed any since then, until last night. At the end of the third quarter, Wemby threw him a lob, and he couldn’t finish it. Only two more to go, Carter! And you better hope your teammates are not counting any that might happen in the Dunk Contest.
- The Spurs are not as committed to attacking without using screens as last year’s Grizzlies and this year’s Heat, but they often go entire possessions with isolations or drives and kicks that often turn into other drives and kicks. When it doesn’t work, it looks like everyone is playing hero ball. When it does, as it did with the Mavericks, it makes them incredibly hard to defend, especially when the guards can consistently touch the paint.
- After the last game against the Mavericks, Marilyn Dubinski pointed out how the Spurs seem to let games become a lot closer than they need to, saying “Don’t get me wrong: I love a team that knows how to tighten the strings and put things together on both ends when the game is on the line, which will be very important in the playoffs, but I would also happily accept a blowout win here or there, just for my own sanity.” A lot of fans can agree with that sentiment and will be happy with Saturday’s performance. San Antonio led by as much as 28, and there was no poor stretch that let the Mavericks get back into it in the second half. More of this, please.
