Brian Windhorst made grave mistake comparing Castle's Knicks comments to the past

Here we go again, folks. By now, you would think that analysts and writers would give the Spurs the benefit of the doubt after losing a game. They've shown the fortitude to bounce back against Anthony Edwards' Timberwolves and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Thunder.

There's no reason they shouldn't feel as if they're still a better team than Jalen Brunson's Knicks, but Brian Windhorst seems to disagree.

"How many times do the Knicks have to do this to opponents before everybody recognizes this is just what they do," Windhorst asked.

The answer to that question is "more." They have to do it more times because what they did last year has no bearing on this season. They lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Indiana Pacers. As far as their current run, comparing any Western Conference powerhouse to a team depending on James Harden to save the day is as egregious as it gets. The Spurs are not the Cavaliers.

Analysts must stop looking at other teams to project the Spurs' chances

Let's take Windy's question and twist it a bit. How many times do the Spurs have to prove that they're no ordinary team? Mitch Johnson led a lottery team last year. They won 34 games and were only projected to make the play-in tournament this season—maybe. There wasn't anything close to a consensus that they'd even pull that off. Yet they won 62 games and made it to the NBA Finals.

The Silver and Black didn't make it this far on sheer luck, either. They announced their arrival loudly with a blowout over the Mavericks in the first game of the season and then rattled off four additional wins. That got them off to the best start in franchise history. But it's a long season, so the beginning isn't everything. Not even close. So, how did they follow that up?

Victor Wembanyama suffered a calf strain, forcing him to miss 12 games. Stephon Castle missed nine games in the same window. Most young teams would fold if two of their best players couldn't suit up for a few weeks, but the Spurs kept winning. They beat the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Cup without those guys, and the team kept rolling.

The Spurs have been defying the odds all season

The stars came back, and they just kept on trucking opponents, taking down OKC three times in the span of two weeks. Fast forward to February, when they post an undefeated month, and then finish the season, losing only four total games the rest of the way. It was a spectacular season, but as everyone kept telling Spurs fans, the playoffs would be different... or would they?

Would conventional wisdom have told these critics that Dylan Harper would go on a heater to ensure San Antonio didn't drop Game 3 against Portland with Wemby sidelined due to concussion protocol? How about when the Spurs lost Game 1 to Minnesota? We had guys like Kendrick Perkins changing their favorite to win the series to the Timberwolves. How did that work out?

Mitch Johnson, as a first-year head coach, and his team, in their first playoff run, were then tasked with taking down the mighty Thunder. Oklahoma City was a favorite to repeat as champions, and the Spurs were down 3-2 in that series without home-court advantage. There are absolutely no examples in the history of the NBA of a first-time postseason team conquering such circumstances... and yet.

Stephon Castle and the Spurs don't care about what happened to the Celtics last season or the Cavaliers in the previous round. San Antonio has proven all year that they are not your run-of-the-mill youth squad. I thought that after watching this team closely and announcing he wouldn't put anything past them as far back as February, Windhorst would know better by now.

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