Stephon Castle on the OKC defense: “I’m trying to play through it, it’s tough. The way they guard, how physical they are we don’t get that same luxury to play as physical on the other end.”
Felt like Castles fouls this game were warranted tho despite the controversial calls tonight
He did a lot of stupid shit.
Tbf they were allowing it in the previous games. But if you gonna call that, call shais push offs and okc moving screens
I mean… Golden State built a dynasty off moving screens lol. Fair to say that the league will never be able to officiate that properly.
They could if they wanted to.
Yeah the screener has to lower their shoulder for an illegal screen to be called.
“TBF, he’s been fouling like crazy all series”
Shai is being fouled way before he even gets to the chicken wing . As soon as he starts the dribble Castle has 2 hands on him or he’s hugging him
He’s playing the guard version of Hart on Wemby. Both are playing super physical and testing the refs whistle. It’s playoff basketball, let them both play. I want playoff basketball, less FTs and more physicality
For the last two series, the spurs have said a lot of things and “let them play” ain’t one of them.
This soft ass reffing is the natural outcome of the Spurs spending the last 3 weeks complaining about the physicality on Wemby.
Yea crazy seeing a spurs fan say the want to see physical play after non stop whining about that with the wolves. Going as far as to say wemby was justified in elbowing Naz intentionally due to physical playoff defense
Castle fouled Shai on an inbounds pass, fouled Shai picking him up full court early, I mean use your noodle a little Mr. Castle
Hes been in foul trouble in damn near every game this playoffs lol at some point you have to look at yourself in the mirror
Stephon “5” Castle.
Consistency please
There’s no such thing as consistency for fans, it will either be OKC for a bad whistle or the Spurs got a bad whistle or there were too many calls or there weren’t enough calls, fans will literally never be happy unless it’s their team winning
He was doing the exact same stuff he did in Game 4 and getting called for it. The reason it felt like the Spurs were allowed to play a different game in Game 4 was because the Thunder rolled over and didn’t give a shit and didn’t match their physicality, not because the reffing was one-sided. Tonight’s crew didn’t let any of that physicality slide for either team. I’d much rather see the game called closer to the way it was in Game 4 but with the Thunder actually playing like it’s the playoffs and not February. I’ve been enjoying watching Castle’s defense on SGA. Unfortunately large parts of Game 5 were excruciating to watch
Which is why the NBA is so stupid because why are games 2 days apart with the same teams being reffed completely differently.
This isn’t exclusive to the NBA btw. It’s just the most blatant with it on TV since we can see it.
The NFL is the same way with refs calling holding, but you can only see offensive holding on the normal TV broadcast.
Feels extremely hypocritical considering the past few weeks of Spurs fan discourse, no?
Why are they called dirty one way and physical the other?
The reffing felt worse in the second half but both in game three and this game Castle has had a bunch of really stupid fouls.
Castle commits one or two dumb fouls a game but at least one of his fouls tonight was soft. I agreed with the broadcast when they called it out.
But thats why he cant give away fouls like he does.
Yeah, that was one of those calls where it’s clearly a foul, like out of context there’s no defending it. But at the level in that game, they should have let it go. You always pick up a few ticky tack calls hanging out in that gray area though, especially if you’re a guy like Castle or Dort or Hart that is roughing up the other guy all night, some calls will be soft and he was just putting himself in a bad position with where he was doing it. Tony Brothers in particular seems mercurial about his limit on that stuff, I’ve seen him let murder go uncalled all game and then rapid fire a few hip bumps or reach-ins and totally throw off the defensive energy.
Agreed. You nailed it. Tony Brothers just randomly decides to “restore order.” 🤣
Hope Castle learns to stop giving away fouls but especially when Tonys reffing.
I do not really care that much about foul calls. I thought Tony and co were fine in game 2 and Im probably the only guy in SA who thinks that. I’m much more concerned with Tonys crew effing up procedural shit. I don’t think it affected the outcome tonight but still just stupid shit.
All that said, everyone’s happy to be done with the Tony games Im sure.
He kept committing momentum stopping fouls thinking the refs would magically stop calling them
This is true. He had a lot of dumb ass fouls on SGA.
Bro says this tonight after having some of the dumbest fouls I’ve seen
Legit just parroting online talking points here. I feel like this trend of players/coaches talking about reffing this postseason is somewhat a reflection of the obsessive fan discourse about reffing.
Wasnt it him that was talking about how they were pushing back in the same way OKC did in game 1 or 2? They’ve been doing plenty of their own holding etc
they finally called Keldon Johnson for grabbing a jersey. this is the playoffs, so i praise him for doing it and getting away with it so much
I think its just strategy. Everyone has been complaining about whistles after the loss, and it often leads to some more favorable calls next game. Players notice, and they do everything to win, so they’ll throw some words in a presser since it doesn’t cost anything and can maybe get an advantage.
There’s way less complaining from the thunder fan base after a loss. Way less. We take the L and move on with adjustments
if refs are influenced by Stephon Castle pressers, then all bets are off, NBA is cooked. I think it’s immaturity and cope.
Notice how the Thunder have yet to mention reffing at all during the playoffs though
OKC doesnt complain about the officiating, from top to bottom
so it is very in-character for them to say nothing about the officiating, other than they’re trying their best at a hard job
Only time I’ve seen is complain was mark on dorts ejection for tripping Jokic. And the next day mark apologized and walked it back
I mean they are pretty much winning almost every game so they’re already in a good place
Nah this goes back to when they were dogshit shais first few years. They’re consistent about it. Prob a Daignault thing
Some Thunder fans have. I just want to see tough playoff basketball. Shai is getting guarded really tough but so is Wemby.
I meant the players or coaches and they’ve been getting mauled these playoffs, from the Lakers to tonight it’s been heavy action. If they were half of what this sub accused them of being they’d be whining 24⁄7
Amen. I was happy to hear Mitch say that their fouls were dumb mistakes on defense. I didn’t listen to his comments tonight about not being given the review. I’m sure he wasn’t stoked on that.
They’re now competing for the online hypothetical championship instead of the NBA championship. Luka and the Lakers have been going back to back for awhile now though.
Hali still has a hypothetical ring as well.
Well the Cavs analytically won the East, also lol.
It’s the enshitification of the world. Nobody is happy. If someone was happy they wouldn’t spend their time on r/nba fighting windmills lol.
Second behind his teammate. Keldon Johnson was two hand pushing everyone in the back right in front of refs lmao
First, Shai is good at drawing contact. Second, you are gonna try to trap him at half court and hug him then complain? Come on, dude. Castle is so athletic and talented–bust a dunk on their heads quit complaining to the media.
At this point it’s gotta be obvious even to the players what the narrative around this series in. Why not lean into it, try and get an advantage next game
does he know we can see him ?
Twitter guys who didn’t watch the game are gonna eat this shit up though
You mean r/nba
Twitter? This subs game threads give me an aneurysm to the point I’m feeling like I’m not watching the same game or my stream is out of sync lol
I just stopped coming to game threads, the amount of dumb shit i read just melts my brain
The game threads are made up of like 30% people watching the games. The rest are either just watching the box scores and vomiting the popular narratives, or trolls/bots karma farming.
lol seriously. This is like some mugger getting arrested and being like “ya’ll see how rough it is out here? Man I’m lucky to be alive”
Dude is using 2 hands every defensive possession like we can’t see him . He’s been in foul trouble every damn series but it’s his reffing against OKC .
The lack of self awareness is honestly batshit crazy lmfao Castle is one of the most physical defenders on the league.
bro the spurs are legit dirty. wemby out here telling people to hurt mccain. castle literally hurt jdub. and i don’t even see the thunder players complaining.
i know reddit hates the thunder, but the spurs are legit dirty ass players/team. more than than, castle literally fouls sga multiple times per play. multiple.
Same guy that randomly threw JDub and got him reinjured btw.
This dude fucking sucks lmao. This is right up there with Harden saying they were the better team. Loser behavior
there were LOADS of bad calls. none of them were on Castle lol
Ehh there was that one where he was just guarding SGA and Tony Brothers called the foul on the bump. That was definitely not a foul. Believe the announcers called it out too. The others were legit though.
Spurs can complain about a few things. But how castle has been allowed to defend is not one of them. Basically 2 hand pushing and hand checking SGA all game. Plus, he also makes plenty of boneheaded decisions
LeBron gif
“Nah, not you! Anybody else on y’all roster, but not you! You don’t say that. You don’t say that”
This was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the headline lol.
10000%
Literal football player talking.
lebron voice: anybody but you
If castle wasn’t on the spurs people would actually hate him like people hate Dort. Dude was actually assaulting Ant in the timberwolves series
Ngl he’s got that head snap down too…
I’ve been saying castle is dort without the online hate but it’ll come. Took a while for dort to be hated
He was beloved when he was physical asf against harden lmao social media has somehow made toxic sports discourse worse then it historically has been, except for the racism but arguably that’s because people have reason to fear repercussions much more then 60 years ago so that’s mostly a death threats and slurs in DMs affair now
People liked Dort doing it to Harden but things turned when it happened to Luka.
IF San Antonio plays NY in the finals Knicks fans will ABSOLUTELY get the word out on Castle and the narrative will change.
OKC hate blinds casual audiences
I don’t know if it is just the hair that makes it seem worse, but it seems like Castle flops more than any other player.
He should have fouled out every single game.
Ant is that you?
I think Castle plays as physical as any player on the thunder (as he should! It’s playoff basketball), sans perhaps dort on a bad day. This is an extremely extremely lame response to losing a pivotal game 5 man, everyone immediately defaulting to ref talk is so toxic
He knows what he’s doing, teams always say stuff like this about the refs to try and get more favourable calls next game.
I agree about that, it is okay. But if this was a Thunder player saying that. it would be a total online meltdown, that is my issue with this. Castle has played borderline dirty at times and super rough all series, and sure, he gets some abuse to, so i see why he wants to try to influence the refs.
But “influencing” the refs is what everyone is losing the minds over that OKC are doing. So it is a extreme double standard from him.
Especially when their franchise cornerstone throws up a dud
70 combined FTA. The league wants this to be the convo
At some point the onus is on the players not to foul.
Yeah I want the physical playoff basketball but the refs clearly didnt want that at all tonight. If players arent adjusting they hold some of that blame as well
When both teams get in the bonus early, you’re going to see a lot of free throws
Castle is as physical as any player in the league no just the Thunder and certainly not just in the playoffs.
Have you seen this sub? It’s all any SAS fan can talk about. They act like there’s some grand conspiracy against them (forget 3 straight years of lotto luck + Wemby). It’s disgusting and has ruined all discourse.
Players cant fall for the narratives. This dude plays the most physical defense on the court against SGA and has gotten away with it for 4 games straight and they finally started calling some on him. That happens sometimes, you have to adjust not just keep committing fouls.
Nobody in this series has gotten away with more than Castle.
100% agreed. Even Hart who did get away with a decent amount game 2 immediately got a lot of attention and calls on him game 3. This is straight up delusional by castle.
Lol. He’s fr being a baby.
Why has the video of him pushing JDub in the back with no call, causing him to injure his hamstring, been posted on here yet?
They took down the clip of Wemby diving at SGA’s knees. They’re not going to keep that clip up either.
Mods removed it
Here it is in the Thunder sub
Clearly a dirty play, just like Wembys elbow, Wemby diving into knees, and Plumlee tonight. I wonder how many dirty plays it takes for the Spurs to get a reputation.
I posted it and it was removed within literally 10 minutes. I posted it over on the OKC sub as well.
Wow that is such horseshit!!! FUCK this sub. Wow.
No-one cares, the jerseys are the wrong way round.
It has been. It keeps getting taken down because the mods of this sub hate the Thunder.
Doesn’t fit the narrative, it was a nasty push too, not even fighting for the ball, just cosplaying Draymond
All these guys need to get off Twitter during the playoffs. They’re feeding into bullshit narratives created by 12 year Olds
You just simply cannot be buying into Twitter narratives as a player in the series. Thats just crazy work.
Exactly what I was thinking. A bunch of nerds on reddit thinking OKC has some benefit with the refs is ok because they don’t have any impact in the game.
When a player starts to have this mentality, they can get more frustrated then they should, and it impact them negatively. We saw that with Minnesota in these playoffs.
Castle saying this out of all their players is pretty hilarious.
Crying about refs as the Spurs is wild, and from Castle is just icing on the cake
I would accept any Spurs player except Castle saying this.
definitely not keldon, the dude has grabbed people’s jerseys in front of refs like 10 times this series, got whistled for it pretty much every time and looks outraged every time lmao
anyone else is fair
Yeah he’s had some stupid fouls for sure lol
I completely agree
Any else on yall roster but not you - LeBron “504090” James
That video has gone quintuple platinum
It’s an all time video
he was pushing with both hands all the time all series
His shove on Jdub was atrocious
Injured dub off a blatant push off of a made basket. Pushed him straight into the stantion and tv cameras
Agree. Maybe he was trying to speak for the team, but he should have picked a better spokesperson. I love Castle’s physicality though. The series would be a whole lot better if both teams were allowed to play a little more physically.
If both teams were allowed to play MORE physically they’d be playing rugby
There’s a difference between being physical and committing dumb fouls. That 5th foul on Keldon Johnson for literally grabbing Chet’s jersey in front of the ref was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen
The audacity for Keldon to complain about it was even more ridiculous. He’s been so bad this entire postseason
Yeah he reminds me of Dort before he fully learnt his place on the team. Mindless drives and bad contested shots. Frustrating watch
Winning 6MOTY might have been the worst thing to happen to Kelton for these playoffs. Dude always thinks he’s the man and if he’s deep in the paint, he’s going up no matter who’s in front of him. I stg sometimes it feels like he thinks he’s Charles Barkley or something. Him and Kornet have been especially bad this series.
He did that last game too. Johnson’s a dummy . He probably could get away with pushing him instead of holding.
Yeah the whole fist full of jersey is such an easy and obvious call
Castle saying this is wild 🤣
There’s no way he’s saying that after what he got away with in Game 4.
Why are these Spurs don’t get accountable it’s crazy. Both fans and it’s players.
He should’ve fouled out in the 3rd quarter lmao. Dude was playing football out there
What LeBron say? ANYONE BUT YOU
The irony 😂
Classic trying to pander to social media so they can get more calls next game
The Chris Finch Methodology
If the refs are going to call it like game 4, imma need Dort to earn his paycheck in game 6
buddy is an inside linebacker talking about not having the luxury to play physical
maybe just don’t run over everyone you try and guard 🤔🤷🏻♂️
Its hillarious because every foul i see Castle, Keldon Johnson and especially Vassell always complaining up in arms about the call. Then the replay shows them literally pulling down on player’s arms, fouling sga multiple times before the call is even made etc etc…
The jersey grab by Keldon Johnson and then complaining about the call was wild.
See it’s people like you that can’t see the truth. Ever since SGA was drafted the NBA planned on sending him to OKC to become the best team in the league. The NBA has been desperate for the central Oklahoma market for years and this was their only way in.
Is this fool serious? You have literally been hacking SGA the entire series!
Honestly people don’t understand how much they are hacking SGA and yet he still manages to get to his spots
At least after 5 games SOME people are recognizing the actual reality of what they are watching.
Anyone but Castle can say this lol. The refs let him do basically whatever he wanted in game 4, and tonight he came out literally tackling people.
injuring jdub and talking like this is weird
Brother, what
this is unbelievable coming from him lmao
….didn’t they get to be super physical in game 4 like he shoved wiggins straight down and they didn’t call it and he took the ball. Also this is absolute baby mentality
Bruh the complaining from him of all people is insufferable. Shut up and play better.
Probably got CTE from flicking his head back too much in game 4
LMFAOOOOOOOOO
Is this dude kidding? He and Fox are straight up mugging SGA all game every game in this series. Like it’s one thing to say the Thunder get away with playing physical, sure, but the Spurs have been incredibly physical too.
I haven’t seen Fox mugging Shai anywhere close enough to compare to Castle, this mf is an inside linebacker
He’s been doing this weird close fisted punch with both hands to SGA’s back every time he guards him. Hard enough to cause some turnovers. It’s not even hand checking, it just looks like he’s hitting him. It’s really weird that it’s not an automatic foul.
This guy is absolutely full of it…Dude has been INSANELY physical with the hacking, holding and pushing. He should quite comfortably lead the series in foul calls. What a clown. Fake tough guy. Maybe flail your head back and have that mop whipping around some more for dramatic effect on your defensive foulling too.That might get a few more calls.
Did the Thunder make excuses after a loss? No.
Anyone but you, this mf complained about the foul call when he smacked shai in the face
And the hold on Chet when you can see him wrapped around Chet’s arm after the entry pass lol
Bro shut up, Castle and wemby are both so full of it
This dude is starting become pretty unlikable real quick. He’s been crying all damn series
Lotta tears when you play the same way
Spurs have a +11 free throw advantage in the series.
Game 1: Spurs +10 (SAS won by 7)
Game 2: OKC +7 (OKC won by 9)
Game 3: even (OKC won by 15)
Game 4: Spurs +14 (SAS won by 21)
Game 5: OKC +6 (OKC won by 13)
OKC has been called for 2 more personal fouls as well, in case you wanted to consider non shooting foul stuff too. I was curious so I checked, it’s basically even 117-119
Shut up both sides are doin the same shit. Play basketball
anybody else on y’all team, not you, you can’t say that
I know that ain’t who I think it is
bro he mauled shai and pushed jdub into a hammy injury… stop it!
Anyone but you ngl
castle is literally playing football on SGA?????
As a Wolves fan, this rings a bell.
Every series: “they’re allowed to be physical and we aren’t!”
Everyone talks about wanting playoff physicality until there’s playoff physicality.
gulp
I would hate to see a player I root for pull this
If you want to say Castle and Hart are playing the same physical role against SGA/Wemby I would agree with that. The difference? Hart has 18 fouls in 108 game minutes. Castle has 21, but in 185 game minutes. They have been VERY lenient on Castle if anything.
Loser mentality
lol.. wut
Well well well
Dude, your team has shot more FTs than your physical opponent during the series. Y’all just weren’t good enough tonight.
this dude is hand checking sga the entire game and literally pushed jdub causing his injury.
Smart of Spurs to play up the “OKC get away with murder” narrative to out pressure on refs. I can’t be sure, but some of the Spurs guys seem to be buying into the victim mentality. You lose the ability to play smart and adjust to refs if you become convinced it’s all unfair.
Stephon Castle has never committed a foul in his life.
Man I’m glad people are finally seeing Castle for what he is
One of his TOs was passing to the ref 🤣
No way castle is talking lmao. Dude could be called for a foul every possession
Bro thought because Foster let him get away with playing football he wasn’t actually fouling
This guy has been handchecking, grabbing, pulling, slapping, and everything else on defense this whole series against Shai and then has the audacity to say we can’t play as physical as them lol
Are we not gonna acknowledge the multiple close-lines he attempted tonight or just gonna blame the refs lol.
This the same dude that shoved jdub into the goal and aggravated his previous injury?
He’s absolutely right - OKCs wing depth is the primary reason why they are able to play aggressively. Spurs don’t have the same luxury because they don’t have a Cason Wallace or Alex Caruso waiting on the bench if the starters get in foul trouble.
Anyone but Castle can complain icl.
The dude who has been grabbing SGA the whole series 💀 anyone but him can talk lol
Hmm…
insert lebron anyone but you video
What do you think his Reddit handle is? He’s definitely on here.
I think he’s the one with the Australia flair
Sorry if this dude is upset the refs won’t allow him to do what he wants for an entire 48 mins. He should feel damn lucky he doesn’t foul out by half time. Because the evidence is there to make it happen if the refs were so inclined.
Yessir! I hope OKC are more physical in game 6
Series is over. When your players start talking like this, it’s a telling sign that are already mentally whooped.
Oh man lol. Great mentality
The call is coming from inside the castle
Just let both play physically every game easy
Big. Baby. Energy.
No, it’s not that you don’t have the luxury, you just make really dumb fouls. Lots of them.