Stephon Castle had his head turned back toward Victor Wembanyama as if he was ready to catch an outlet pass from the big man and push the ball up the court before Wembanyama threw the ball off Castle’s back in the final seconds of Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
A new video angle shows what Wembanyama was seeing Friday night after he grabbed the defensive rebound of Jalen Brunson’s missed shot with the score tied at 104-104 and 11.8 seconds remaining.
With the Spurs foregoing their timeout, Wembanyama took a step, a dribble and another step before passing to Castle.
By that time, Castle had turned his head forward and was running up court past the Spurs bench and near the scorer’s table under the assumption that Wembanyama was going to dribble across midcourt.
Brunson’s eyes were locked on Wembanyama and he read the miscommunication perfectly, jumping forward to grab the loose ball before Castle even knew what hit him. Literally.
Brunson corralled the ball on the sideline just as Wembanyama caught up to the pass and bumped Brunson to the ground for a foul with 9.5 seconds to go.
He made one of two free throws, and Wembanyama’s shot at redemption rimmed out at the other end as the Knicks survived for a 105-104 victory and 2-0 series lead.
“I threw that one away,” Wembanyama said. “I messed up. It’s like the body reacts quicker than the mind. We needed to win that game. This game was ours. But at this point it’s done. Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course.
“Am I going to use that to fuel me and fuel us to the next game? Absolutely.”
Castle’s first instinct as Wembanyama corralled the rebound was to get skinny, a slowed-down version of the video shows.
“I didn’t see him throw it to me,” Castle said. “I see Vic has the ball, tie game. I was just trying to give Vic space.”
