Stephon Castle saw his team lose another NBA Finals game against the New York Knicks in what was a bad start to the series, and the worst of it was that it happened at home. But before traveling to play Game 3, Gregg Popovich jumped in with a ‘relaxing’ message.
According to Castle, what Popovich asked the team was to leave the 0-2 hole out of their minds. “We talked to Pop before we flew down here. And pretty much his message was just let the last two games go.” And just like that, they listened to him. “It happened,” he stated.
The Spurs are now down in the series, but they still have plenty of time to tie it up and return home at 2-2. And for the history books, they won the conference finals nearly that way against the Oklahoma City Thunder by winning key games on the road.
Castle admits Popovich’s message is already working
Game 3 is a must-win game for them, and mentally, Castle and his teammates have already adopted Popovich’s message. While he admitted there is some regret after losing two games that, according to him, were quite winnable, they won’t let those two losses make them worry.
“You know they were very winnable games. And yeah we feel like we gave them those games. But we got to let those go and focus on the next one. We feel like the next game is the most important game of the series, so try and come into that and win it,” Castle said.
It isn’t impossible for the Spurs to climb out of a 0-2 hole; other teams in the 21st century have already done it. The Cavaliers started 0-2 against the Warriors, fell even further to 1-3, and somehow won the title in 2016. The most recent example was the Milwaukee Bucks when they started 0-2 against the Suns back in 2021.
