On Monday, the San Antonio Spurs held their annual media day for the upcoming season. The Spurs are looking to build off last year's trip to the NBA Finals, which ended in bitter fashion with numerous blown leads against the New York Knicks, ultimately losing the series in five games.
The Spurs appeared utterly rattled during Game 4's monumental choke job in Madison Square Garden, but recently, San Antonio guard Stephon Castle denied that the New York City crowd played much of a factor in the Spurs' loss.
“It was underwhelming in that first game,” Castle said, per Cam Wolf of GQ Sports. “They made it seem like it was going to be way crazier in there.”
He also opined that “OKC was way louder than MSG.”
Article Continues BelowIn fairness to the Spurs, they did get their lone win of the series in Game 3 on the road, and Castle himself hit a dagger three-pointer in that one to quell another late Knicks comeback attempt.
However, San Antonio didn't exactly look comfortable under the bright lights in the following game, squandering a 29-point lead in what became one of the biggest collapses in recent professional sports history, then going on to blow another sizable lead in Game 5 at home to lose the series four games to one.
Still, that doesn't fully take away from the poise that the young Spurs had shown up to that point in the playoffs, knocking out the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the previous round in seven games to get to the Finals in the first place, and doing so in another raucous environment, as Castle referenced.
The Spurs will kick off their new season against Oklahoma City on October 20.