Stephon Castle out for remainder of Summer League, plus Spurs defeat Hawks

The Spurs won their second Vegas Summer League game Sunday, but before the game, the team announced Stephon Castle will have to miss the rest of Summer League due to a wrist injury.

The Summer Spurs improved to 2-0 in the Las Vegas Summer League Sunday, after a close 3-point win over number one overall pick Zaccharie Risacher and the Atlanta Hawks.

Here’s what topics we’ll look at below:

• Castle out for remainder of Summer League

• Sidy Cissoko, Jamaree Bouyea, and Harrison Ingram vs Atlanta

• Outside shooting from D’Moi Hodge

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Castle out for remainder of Summer League

Before the Spurs’ game against the Hawks began, the Spurs announced Stephon Castle will miss the remainder of Summer League with a right wrist sprain.

According to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express News, it’s a minor injury, but the Spurs wanted to stay cautious and not take any chances with the injury.

In Saturday’s game against Portland, there was a play in the fourth quarter where Castle fell hard on the right side of his body without being able to get a safe landing. Castle finished the game, but he appeared to be holding onto his wrist when off the ball.

Castle finishes the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer Leagues with the following numbers:

3 games, 25.5 minutes, 17.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4 assists to 2.3 turnovers, 1.3 steals, and 1 foul. Castle shot 37% from the floor, 25% from three on 5.3 attempts, and 67% from the free throw line with 4 attempts per game.

I wrote about Castle’s 3 games in detail below:

• Game 1 vs Charlotte

• Game 2 vs Team China

• Game 3 vs Portland

After the game, Summer League Head Coach Kenny Trevino was asked about how Castle played in the Summer League:

I’m excited for him. I’m excited to see him with the big club in the regular season. I thought he had a great Summer League, and I think he got everybody in San Antonio excited for his arrival.

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Sidy Cissoko, Jamaree Bouyea, and Harrison Ingram vs Atlanta

Though Castle was out, the Spurs had two members of their squad under contract available in the game in Cissoko and Bouyea. Ingram also played in the game, the Spurs’ unsigned second round pick.

Sidy Cissoko

In 22 minutes, Cissoko finished with 8 points on 5 shots, 2 rebounds, 1 assist to 4 turnovers, 2 steals, and 6 fouls. Shooting numbers across the board were rough for both teams, whether as a whole, or from the 3-point line.

As he’s shown with his body size, Cissoko is able to draw contact on his drives. He did that multiple times to get to the free throw line for his 8 free throw attempts. While he doesn’t blow by his defender off the dribble 1-on-1, he can still draw contact.

Coach Pop raved about Cissoko’s passing ability Saturday, and he showed some of that skillset on two possessions. On one possession, he was on the break and dribbled deep into the paint, just when it looked like was going to put up a layup, he threw a 1-handed pass to the left arc three (a difficult pass to make), though his teammate missed the shot. There was another possession where he tried to drive past his defender, the defender made him stop his dribble, but Cissoko waited, then saw a cutter, and delivered a bounce pass to his teammate for a layup.

Risacher had a tough night overall, shooting 4-of-12 from the field, but there were two specific possessions where he tried to take Cissoko off the dribble, and Cissoko got stops on both possessions.

Here was Coach Trevino on Cissoko’s playmaking ability:

He grew up a point guard, so that’s very natural for him, and the flare that he does it with, that’s also his own thing. He puts that twist on it., yeah, he’s had that.

Here was Bouyea discussing Cissoko’s play after the game:

I think Sidy’s a great playmaker. I think the overseas basketball is different from the NBA and he’s probably learned how to play basketball and share the ball, and play through the offense, play the right way. So I think that definitely helps him a lot and when he’s aggressive and getting down hill, he makes the right plays all the time. Whether it’s a dunk or it’s a drop-off to a big, he’s going to make the right play.

Jamaree Bouyea

With Castle out, Bouyea got to go back to his natural position of being the Spurs’ lead point guard. In 24 minutes, Bouyea finished with 12 points on 12 shots, 3 rebounds, 4 assists to 3 turnovers, and 3 steals.

Like Cissoko and most of his teammates, Bouyea had a tough night from the 3-point line, shooting 0-of-5. He did what he usually does out on the court, plays with a lot of energy, gets the team into their sets or runs P&Rs to create, and makes hustle plays.

There was a possession in the fourth where he went up high for a defensive board, he collected the board, and pushed the ball down court. He saw a teammate ahead of him and threw an on-target bounce pass to his teammate for the finish.

When the game was close in the final minutes, Bouyea got a switch against a Hawks big, and used a crafty crossover into step-back dribble to make a mid-range jumper.

After the game, Coach Trevino discussed what it’s like to have a veteran point guard like Bouyea to finish a game: