Castle and the Spurs Take Commanding 3-1 Lead over Clingan, Blazers

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Here is the new link to my page!

Games 3 and 4: Donovan Clingan vs Stephon Castle

Stephon Castle led the UConn Huskies to his fair share of road victories in his lone season in Storrs during the 2023-2024 National Championship season. Some of those road wins included victories at Villanova, at St. John’s and at Providence. By the end of of this past weekend, he added another milestone, recording his first two career road wins in the NBA postseason.

For Thursday night’s Game 3, the San Antonio Spurs were without Victor Wembanyama (concussion), giving Castle the opportunity to take on an even larger offensive role, and he delivered. Castle poured in a playoff career-high 33 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three and 10-of-11 from the free-throw line, while adding five assists in 34 minutes as the Spurs defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 120–108 to take a 2–1 series lead.

Donovan Clingan scored seven points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 20 minutes in his first career playoff home game.

In Game 4, the Portland Trail Blazers led by as many as 19 points in the first half and took a 58–41 advantage into halftime. However, the Spurs came roaring back in the second half as Castle finished with 16 points while dealing with a left hand injury, in the San Antonio Spurs’ 114–93 victory, giving them a commanding 3–1 series lead.

For the fourth straight game, Castle scored the Spurs’ first points on a three-pointer after Clingan once again, purposefully, left him wide open.

The Trail Blazers have dared Castle to shoot from three rather than attack the rim, a strategy that has backfired, with Castle hitting 8-of-17 (47.1%) from deep over the last three games.

Just over two minutes later, Clingan went up for a layup, but it was Castle was there to greet him for another edition of Husky on Husky crime!

You can see Castle’s reaction right after the block. He got the best of Clingan in that sequence.

Later in the first half, Castle suffered an apparent left-hand injury. He was able to quickly receive X rays in the locker room before returning later in the first half.

With just over two minutes to play in the fourth quarter and the Spurs leading 102-90, Blazers Deni Avdija was guarding Castle on this possession:

The technical foul is the first of Castle’s NBA postseason career, but he was able to get the last laugh as the Spurs closed out the 21-point victory,

Clingan continued to struggle from the field. The former Husky scored just five points on 2-of-10 from the field, including 1-of-6 from three in only 14 minutes. In the first four games, plus the play-in game, Clingan is averaging just 5.4 points on 11-41 shooting (26.8%) and 3-of-21 from three (14.3%).

Game 5 will be back on Tuesday at 9:30pm ET back in San Antonio. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN.

Andre Drummond

With the return of Joel Embiid, who missed the previous eight games following an appendectomy, Andre Drummond saw his role significantly reduced in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 128–96 Game 4 home loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday. During Embiid’s absence, Drummond averaged just over 23 minutes per game and scored in double figures in five of those eight contests. On Sunday, however, he played just five minutes, and the 32-point defeat marked the 76ers’ worst loss of the series so far.

The win gave the Celtics a 3-1 series lead and have a chance to wrap up the series on Tuesday at 7:00pm ET on ESPN.

Tage Thompson

With the series tied at one game apiece, Thompson and the Buffalo Sabres took control in Boston, defeating the Boston Bruins 3–1 on Thursday and 6–1 on Sunday to take a commanding 3–1 lead in the opening-round series. Thompson did not score in either contest but recorded his second assist in the five-goal rout.

The Sabres will try and close out their first playoff series since 2007 on Tuesday. The puck will drop at 7:30pm ET and can be watched on TNT/TruTV/HBO MAX or NESN.

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