Spurs’ De’Aaron Fox gets real on ‘fight’ needed to win NBA Finals Game 3 vs Knicks

As the San Antonio Spurs headed into the locker room at halftime of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the New York Knicks appeared to have taken control, poised to continue the outstanding play that’s defined their NBA playoffs. With Madison Square Garden rocking, it was a moment not lost on De’Aaron Fox.

“It’s like a fight, a UFC fight, boxing fight, whatever it is. You get hit, you’re wobbly at the end of a round,” Fox said. “We gave up 42 points and only scored 24 points in that quarter. It was a break we needed. We didn’t need to waste a timeout.”

San Antonio responded by outscoring the Eastern Conference champions by four in the fourth quarter en route to a 115-111 win that closed the series gap to 2-1.

“We came out in the second half, and we hit them first, tied the game up quickly,” Fox said. “There are definitely times where you want to try to stop a run. They finished that quarter (second) great. We didn’t finish it well. Once we did that, we came out and we hit first. It kind of felt like a new game for us.”

De’Aaron Fox stresses Spurs effort in Game 3 victory

As they did in the first two games of the series, the Spurs started well. Up by eight and nine points after the first quarter, respectively, in the Alamo City, they took an 11-point lead into the second period of Game 3.

“Every game we’ve played, I think we’ve had the bigger lead in all these games,” Fox said. “The big thing is, how can we sustain the way that we’re playing. I think in the first half, we’ve come out, hit first. They’ve responded. Sometimes we didn’t respond well. We kind of kept the games close. But I think we responded well to their run.”

Fox then shed more light on the team’s mindset at the intermission.

“We’re thinking to ourselves, how can we get back to playing the way we were playing, with the ball moving, getting stops, not giving up offensive rebounds, not turning the ball over,” Fox noted. “Whenever we were able to do that, I think that’s why we were able to, one, get back into the game and, two, grow our lead and finish the game off.”

Though Fox hit a huge shot with 12.2 left that put the Spurs up by five, he didn’t shoot particularly well, going 4-of-14, including 0-of-5 from 3-point range.

“You continue to play the right way. I think that’s all it is. Make or miss, I’m not just going to be forcing shots because I’m hot or because I’m missing shots,” Fox said.

“We always talk about it, when we’re moving the ball, regardless of who it is, the ball finds who it needs to find. We continue to play that way. Like I said, we don’t want to come here and then change what we’re doing. There’s a reason we got here. There’s a reason we’ve been competing at a high level this entire season.”

San Antonio can completely dig out of a 0-2 hole with a big Game 4 effort in New York City.

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