Game Thread Spurs (61-19) vs Mavericks (25-55) (Fri 04/10/2026) [7:00 CDT]

Bomb thrower of the year…
that's not bomb throwing, that's just stating the obvious.. Castle has no case other than fan hype.. Bomb throwing would be that Castle isn't a top 5 defender on the current spurs, given that he's not top 5 in defensive rating or stl+blk or total rebounds per 36 minutes
 
Was thinking today about this season's opener against the Dallas Mavericks Oct 22. Wemby had 40 with Spurs rolling and that was a sort of notice sent to the league. And then you think about how much this team has progressed between then and tonight against those same Dallas Mavericks. Interesting perspective point provided by the Mavs.
 
Was thinking today about this season's opener against the Dallas Mavericks Oct 22. Wemby had 40 with Spurs rolling and that was a sort of notice sent to the league. And then you think about how much this team has progressed between then and tonight against those same Dallas Mavericks. Interesting perspective point provided by the Mavs.
I believe the Spurs were Vegas underdogs headed into that game as well.

Wild to think these are the same teams.
 
So they play victor tonight. Most likely wemby wont sunday but castle will play.
 
Won't be too long until Dylan is on the cover. Hard to believe we went from Point Sochan to De'Aaron, Steph, and Dylan in a couple of years.
Hey, Point Sochan led us to those losses that led us to Steph!
 
that's not bomb throwing, that's just stating the obvious.. Castle has no case other than fan hype.. Bomb throwing would be that Castle isn't a top 5 defender on the current spurs, given that he's not top 5 in defensive rating or stl+blk or total rebounds per 36 minutes
I mean, he's 9th in the NBA in Defensive win share according to the NBA official formula for guys that will qualify, and 7 of those ahead are locks to be All-D plus Amen Thompson. He's just ahead of Barnes, OG, Caruso, Holiday, Duren, Dort, Ausar and Dyson. Pretty representative list of the best defenders in the league, with a few outliers. He's 16th in Statmuses DRTG system, tied for 20th among qualifers by BBRefs DTRG both of which obviously over sample rebounds (Joker, KAT, Alpi all ahead on both).

Did you know: Bruce Bowen was never once top5 on the Spurs in Rebs (never top10, 13th most yrs) or Stocks per/36.
Good thing that the fan hype fouled the voters into giving him 8 straight All-D appearances. Or maybe Rebs and Stocks don't necessarily translate to the quality of perimeter defense.

Edit: Just lost all confidence in DRTG. Bruce Bowen never finished higher than 10th on the Spurs in DTRG. The year he finished 2nd in DPOY he was 17th out of 17 on the team and was usually 13th or lower. So either Beno was a far superior defender or DTRG is not a good stat for guys that always get the toughest assignment.
 
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I believe the Spurs were Vegas underdogs headed into that game as well.

Wild to think these are the same teams.
It's a testament to Mitch and the players put the work in. Accounting early season injuries for some context the progression even just since Feb has been meteoric.
 
Won't be too long until Dylan is on the cover. Hard to believe we went from Point Sochan to De'Aaron, Steph, and Dylan in a couple of years.
Side note but kind of related thinking about our recent PGs: Tre Jones has been balling for Chicago. Shame that we didn’t have room for him with this squad, but nice to see him doing well elsewhere.
 
If I was the Spurs I would do the same, play Victor against the tanking team rather than the probable Playoffs opponent.
 
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