SAN ANTONIO — For at least one evening, Stephon Castle snagged the reins from Victor Wembanyama as San Antonio’s record-breaking young talent, racking up a career-high 42 points on the way to his second career triple-double Saturday in the Spurs’ 138-125 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
“Best game of his career so far,” Wembanyama said. “It’s one of the best stat lines I’ve seen with my own eyes.”
Castle became the youngest player in NBA history (21 years and 98 days old) to produce a 40-12-12 game, a record previously held by Oscar Robertson (22 years, 33 days), according to ESPN Research. Coincidentally, the second-year man eclipsed his previous career high of 33 points set exactly one year ago against the Charlotte Hornets.
“I don’t know, something about this day,” Castle said, smiling. “Having a game like this, it’s definitely a dream come true. It felt good just to be out there feeling comfortable with every shot that I took and [got to] see them go in.”
Castle inflicted his damage over a span of 31 minutes and 51 seconds, good for the second-fewest minutes played in a 40-point triple-double since 1970-71, when minutes were first tracked, according to ESPN Research. James Harden (43-10-12) owns the record for fewest minutes (29:34) played in a 40-point triple-double.
Castle’s 12 rebounds registered as a season high, and he drilled 78.9% of his shots, becoming just the second player to tally a 40-point triple-double while shooting 75% or better from the field, according to ESPN Research. Wilt Chamberlain accomplished that feat on three occasions.
“They guarded him at times with their five and then guarded him at times with really low pickup points last game,” said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, whose team was facing Dallas for the second time in three days. “We were expecting potentially for them to do that again. He started off with two or three possessions of getting his teammates advantages. When you have that type of approach it’s amazing how much you end up being the recipient at times of the advantage you may have created for your teammate.
“I thought he was absolutely phenomenal all night with his pace, being in attack mode and balancing all of it at the same time.”
Castle connected on each of his first 10 shots and didn’t miss his first shot until 8:51 remained in the third quarter. He also logged three steals and a block as San Antonio pushed its win streak to four games. The Spurs have now collected their most victories (36) before the All-Star break since 2016-17.
In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s win at Frost Bank Center, the sellout crowd of 18,617 raised its hands in celebration, patiently waiting for Castle to grab the mallet to a bass drum on the court while teammates took turns patting the guard on top of his head and hitting him with towels.
With a towel wrapped around his neck, Castle banged the drum.
Boom, boom.
Clap, the crowd responded back.
“That was my first time,” Castle said. “I thought I did decent.”
Later in the locker room, Castle stood alone wrapped in a towel, quietly reflecting on the best performance of his young career. Now the ninth player in franchise history to collect multiple triple-doubles, Castle wore a pair of red Air Jordan 40s designed to look like the Air Jordan retro 14 Ferrari for his historic night against the Mavs.
The shoes had disappeared from the postgame locker room.
“You’ll never see them again,” Castle told ESPN. “I’m never wearing those again.”
