{"id":659999,"date":"2026-05-23T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/659999\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:00:09","slug":"rivalry-is-brewing-okc-dirty-nba-world-reacts-to-stephon-castles-tussle-vs-thunders-ajay-mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/659999\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018RIVALRY IS BREWING,\u2019 \u2018OKC Dirty\u2019 \u2013 NBA World Reacts to Stephon Castle\u2019s Tussle vs. Thunder\u2019s Ajay Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things have been getting physical in the Western Conference Finals this season. The San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder fought it out to gain the lead in Game 3 at the Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

Since Game 1, energies are shifting and taking a life of their own. Things really boiled over in the third quarter, with the NBA world ready to voice its opinions about what went down in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

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Ajay Mitchell<\/a>\u2019s Foul on Stephon Castle Sparks Spurs-Thunder Scrum in Game 3<\/p>\n

It all happened with 8:19 left in the third quarter. A simple transition play sent Stephon Castle going for a layup as Ajay Mitchell caught him from behind. Things went from bad to worse as Castle crashed toward the baseline.<\/p>\n

Devin Vassell<\/a> did not like a single bit of this, and the Spurs veteran got in Mitchell\u2019s face. The two traded shoves as players poured in from both benches.<\/p>\n

Whistles followed, and Mitchell drew a flagrant 1 foul for contact on an airborne Castle. He and Vassell were each hit with offsetting technicals.<\/p>\n

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An X user saw something building.<\/a> \u201cTHE RIVALRY IS BREWING,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another user leaned into the chaos,<\/a> posting, \u201cPlayoff basketball hitting different. These boys ain\u2019t playing. Castle got that dog in him tho.\u201d<\/p>\n

One user<\/a> wanted San Antonio to step in. \u201cSpurs should bench Castle for a few minutes to calm him down He is really on edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another user<\/a> kept it blunt: \u201cOKC Dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n

This series was always trending toward something physical. Both teams won 60-plus games, grinding out wins in the WCFs. Both teams have been bruising each other\u2019s egos in the first two games.<\/p>\n

Physicality never went out of the equation. In both Games 1 and 2, the OKC Thunder were scrutinized on social media for being overly physical with Victor Wembanyama<\/a> and the team.<\/p>\n

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Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> tried his best to make the night miserable for Wemby<\/a>, calling himself a guy who brings physicality.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: \u2018Just Throwing the Bait Out\u2019 \u2013 NBA Champion Rips Lakers\u2019 LeBron James for Chasing Attention Ahead of Free Agency<\/a><\/p>\n

In Game 1, Chet Holmgren appeared to plant his foot on Wemby\u2019s foot<\/a> during a rebound scrum. Wemby did not react or sustain any injuries, but social media has been calling out OKC for its deliberate, dangerous actions.<\/p>\n

After Thunder\u2019s 123-108 Game 3 win, the series sits at 2-1 with OKC trying to defend the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Spurs will look to level it up heading into Game 4 on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things have been getting physical in the Western Conference Finals this season. The San Antonio Spurs and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[56233,16733,99528,288939,145182,21976,6306,3013,355,6402,6999,2116,99,40552,1022,24,32090,69310],"class_list":["post-659999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ajay-mitchell","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-devin-vassell","tag-frost-bank","tag-frost-bank-center","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-stephon-castle","tag-texas","tag-usa","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-western-conference-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}