For the San Antonio Spurs, crunch time is now. After dropping Game 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Western Conference Semifinals are now tied 2-2, and the Oklahoma City Thunder have already secured their place in the next round, so the Spurs effectively need to win the next two games in order to maximize their chances of taking down the Thunder. The same goes for Minnesota, which lost at in the conference finals to Oklahoma City last season.

If San Antonio wants to win tonight’s critical 8:10 p.m. ET Game 5 at home, it’ll need a big performance from Stephon Castle, especially if either of De’Aaron Fox (ankle) or Dylan Harper (knee) sit. Castle had 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists in Game 4.

The Spurs are 10.5-point favorites for tonight’s clash at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total set to 218.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bet centered around the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year.

Best Stephon Castle Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook

Stephon Castle O17.5 Points (-114)

Two of Castle’s three highest-scoring games of these playoffs so far both game when Wembanyama was either injured or was ejected in the second quarter, but this bar is a bit low; he’d already scored 10 of his 18 points by the time Wembanyama exited the game concussed in Game 2 against the Portland Trail Blazers, and he had 21 points in Game 2 with the Frenchman active. Castle also scored 18 or more points 27 times alongside Wembanyama during the regular season, as the positive impact of his gravity has tended to out-weigh the negative impact his presence has on Castle’s usage rate.

To their credit, the Timberwolves have an excellent defense, finishing in the top 10 in defensive rating for the fourth consecutive regular season. The issue is that their best defenders aren’t guarding Castle; four-time Defensive Player of the Year has spent most of his time marking Wembanyama, and Jaden McDaniels, a former All-Defensive Second Teamer, has spent just 40.6 partial possessions guarding Castle. Instead, the defenders who have spent the most time guarding him have been Julius Randle, who ranks in the 49th percentile in points saved per 100 possessions, and Anthony Edwards, whose 1.0% stop percentage so far these playoffs is 1.7 percentage points lower than the league median. Donte DiVincenzo, who stifled Castle effectively in the teams’ two regular-season matchups (19 total points on four-for-19 shooting, including one-for-six against DiVincenzo) is now out for the season after tearing his Achilles in the first round.