Victor Wembanyama gave Stephon Castle full credit for the poise he showed down the stretch of the San Antonio Spurs' 115-111 win over the New York Knicks in Monday's Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
"He might be the most mature player on our team, and he's nowhere near the oldest," Wembanyama told reporters postgame, per SNY. "He's been in big games before the NBA. I'm not surprised by this. He's shown over and over again that he's capable and that we are right to put our trust in him."
Castle is no stranger to the bright lights. The second-year guard played at Madison Square Garden on multiple occasions during his lone campaign with UConn in 2023-24 and had a pair of strong Final Four performances to help the Huskies win the national championship.
Castle showed the same demeanor Monday evening in the Big Apple, tallying 23 points, five boards, and five assists in 38 minutes to prevent the Spurs from going down 0-3 in the series.
The 21-year-old drilled a clutch three with 1:53 remaining as the shot clock was expiring and calmly knocked down a pair of free throws in the final 10 seconds to put the Knicks away.
CASTLE in the CLUTCH.
— NBA (@NBA) June 9, 2026
This huge triple capped @StephonCastle's 23p, 5r, 5a night to lift the Spurs in Game 3! pic.twitter.com/QOSqyoXJ1O
"His personality, his demeanor, that's the way he is," Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox said postgame, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. "He's kind of always cool. That's just being young. But his game is definitely mature beyond his years. He was big for us. He hit a big three toward the end of the shot clock. Knocks down two big free throws for us. He's guarding his tail off the entire game.
"His game is as mature as it can be, especially at 21 years old."
San Antonio can even up the Finals at two games apiece with a Game 4 victory Wednesday in New York.
