Stephon Castle turnovers: Spurs star makes unfortunate history with Game 2 giveaways as Thunder even series

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Widely regarded as the best player to emerge from his draft class thus far, Stephon Castle has enjoyed a charmed start to life in the NBA.

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The Spurs star is undoubtedly one of basketball's best young talents, seeing his production pick up leaps and bounds between his rookie and sophomore campaigns. In the postseason, his impact has been even more pronounced -- Castle is averaging more points on better shooting than he did during the regular season.

Still, his last two performances have left something to be desired, even if he has found his target more times than most.

As of late, Castle has coughed the ball up at a rate never before seen in postseason play. On Wednesday, his toils with ball protection ball protection resurfaced in a dire way as the Spurs fell to the Thunder in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.

Here's what you need to know about Castle's turnover-laden showing against OKC.

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Stephon Castle turnovers vs. Thunder

Two days after recording 11 turnovers in the Spurs' Game 1 win, Castle tacked on an additional 10 as San Antonio limped to defeat.

Castle found success with the ball in his grasp, tallying a team-high 25 points and eight assists to help power the Spurs' attack. His looseness with the ball proved the most glaring aspect of his performance, however. Castle's giveaways sank San Antonio's effectiveness, bringing about a sour end to an efficient showcase that saw the Spurs shoot 49 percent from the field.

Castle accounted for 10 of the Spurs' 21 turnovers on the night. He became the first player in playoff history to record back-to-back 10+ turnover games. With 21 giveaways across the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, Castle broke the record for most turnovers in a two-game span in NBA playoff history.

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With De'Aaron Fox on the mend due to a pesky right ankle sprain, Castle has been thrust into a lead ball-handler role in San Antonio's backcourt. He amassed plenty of dimes across the regular season, averaging the sixth-most assists in the league during the regular season. Despite his playmaking chops, Castle did record the ninth-most turnovers in basketball.

Castle has proven himself an effective scorer in recent games, inflicting damage upon Oklahoma City's backline -- particularly at the rim. Despite this, he has been harassed by Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace, the Thunder's primary point-of-attack defenders. Renowned for their quick hands and timing, they have combined for nine plucks in two games.

To that end, Castle's turnovers came in a variety of ways. Some stemmed from timely interventions from the likes of Caruso, Wallace and Ajay Mitchell.

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Others, like the errant pass he threw into the stands to seal San Antonio's defeat, seemed to emerge from carelessness more than anything else.

Castle acknowledged that he has played sped up in the opening two games of the series while speaking with reporters postgame.

“The biggest thing is just playing off two feet, not getting sped up," Castle said. "Obviously, I didn’t do a great job of that, but yeah, just trying to keep my teammates involved. Trying not to do too much on the offensive end.”

Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson agreed with his young guard's asssessment.

“We’ve addressed it and we’ll continue to just in terms of trying to help him with some of his reads, especially when he’s tired," Johnson said. "He had too many turnovers but our whole team did.”

As far as turnovers go, things couldn't have gotten much worse than they did for Castle in Games 1 and 2. It's statistically improbably that Castle will put forth a similar outing in Game 3.

Nevertheless, San Antonio is likely to be clamoring for Fox's return in the next game or two. The sooner Fox is back in Spurs colors, the sooner Castle can move to an off-ball role, allowing him to build up steam as he collects the ball and avoid the blitz that is Oklahoma City's point-of-attack coverage.

Most turnovers in two-game span in NBA playoff history

With his less-than-ideal display in Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference Finals, Castle broke the record for most turnovers in a two-game span in postseason history. He snapped James Harden's mark of 18, set across Game 5 of the 2015 Western Conference Finals and Game 1 of the Rockets' first round matchup. Both performances came against the same team: the Golden State Warriors.

Here's a look at other noteworthy names who surrendered possession of the ball myriad times across back-to-back postseason contests:

RankPlayerTeamTurnoversDatesOpponent(s)1Stephon CastleSpurs21May 19-21, 2026Thunder2James HardenRockets18May 27, 2015-April 16, 2016Warriors3Cade CunninghamPistons17April 25-April 27, 2026MagicLeBron JamesCavaliers17May 6-May 8, 2008Celtics5LeBron JamesLakers16April 24-26, 2026RocketsTrae YoungHawks16April 17-19, 2022HeatJoel Embiid76ers16June 18-20, 2021HawksJames HardenRockets16May 4-May 6, 2015ClippersSteve NashSuns16May 13-15, 2005Mavericks


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