As the San Antonio Spurs prepare for Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks on June 3, De’Aaron Fox offered a clear message about what brought the Western Conference champions to this stage: trust the process that already worked.
“Don’t change anything that we’re doing,” Fox said Tuesday when discussing San Antonio’s approach entering its first Finals appearance of the Victor Wembanyama era. “There’s a reason that we’re in the finals. There’s a reason that we won 60 games. There’s a reason that we didn’t lose three games in a row the whole year.”
The veteran guard’s comments came after a playoff run in which San Antonio defeated Portland, Minnesota and Oklahoma City in a seven-game Western Conference Finals series. The Spurs enter the Finals after finishing 62-20 in the regular season and splitting the season series with New York, winning 134-132 in San Antonio before losing 114-89 at Madison Square Garden.
Fox said his message to younger teammates became especially important during difficult moments in the postseason.
“My big message for guys is, especially as we were going through this process, not right now, but as we’re playing in the first round and going up 2-0, obviously enjoy the moment,” Fox said. “This is a hard thing to do. It’s hard to get back to these places.”
The point guard stressed that Finals pressure should not force dramatic changes in decision-making or offensive habits.
“Going into Game 7, a lot of times superstars think that they need to, I guess, people say unload the clip, just get all your rocks off,” Fox said. “And going into that game, I’m like, no, do the things that we’ve been doing throughout the course of the year.”
“We don’t need to change anything,” he added. “We’re a good team and we know that. So go into these games knowing that there’s a reason that we’re here and continue to play the way that we play, double down on it, triple down on it.”
That approach may matter against a Knicks team arriving in the Finals after sweeping Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals and producing one of the league’s most efficient playoff offenses. Jalen Brunson has averaged 26.9 points and 6.6 assists in the postseason, while OG Anunoby has shot 48.3% from three-point range and Karl-Anthony Towns has added 16.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists.
Fox acknowledged the challenge New York presents offensively.
“They’ve been one of the better shooting teams,” he said. “They’ve played faster throughout the playoffs.”
For San Antonio, Fox believes the solution begins with execution rather than adjustment.
“Playing a team that has a high-powered offense, you can’t help them by having bad offense,” Fox said. “Being able to, if we miss a shot, getting back in transition and limiting our live ball turnovers — that’s where it starts.”
Fox also pointed to the Spurs’ championship culture as a stabilizing force for one of the NBA’s youngest contenders.
“We have these guys who have won multiple championships and been to the mountaintop multiple times,” Fox said, referencing the presence of franchise legends around the organization. “You can ask them anything.”
“They want to see other people be successful,” he added. “That’s a great thing to have especially throughout the course of a long year and then a long finals run.”
