Dylan Harper made sure he hugged each of his Spurs teammates in the locker room before leaving the Frost Bank Center for the last time this season on Saturday night.
“A lot of people counted us out, and we just proved people wrong,” Harper said in a reference to the doubters who predicted the young team wouldn’t go far in the playoffs because of lack of experience.
The rookie guard’s play was a big reason why the Spurs reached the NBA Finals as the second-youngest team ever behind the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers.
And he nearly did enough to keep them in it for at least one more game.
“We have a star in the making,” Spurs forward Devin Vassell said of the No. 2 overall pick.
In 31 minutes, Harper hit 10 of 19 from the field and 2 of 4 from 3-point range. But his performance wasn’t without its tough moments, including missing three layups and a free throw in the final 2:29 when he was clearly running out of gas.
“There was some good, some bad,” Harper said. “There were a lot of possessions I want to take back and do differently. But that’s now how the ball bounced. Just got to keep moving on.”
Harper, who had 21 points in the 107-106 loss in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, became the first rookie to have multiple Finals games with 20 or more points since Richard Dumas did it for Phoenix in 1993.
Unfortunately for the Spurs, their two other downhill guards, De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, struggled mightily in Game 5.
Coming off a crunch-time performance plagued by questionable decisions in Game 4, Fox shot just 3 of 15 from the field and 1 of 8 from 3-point range on his way to seven points after coming into the game averaging 14.3 points for the series.
“I got shots I’ve made in the past and sometimes you just don’t make them,” he said. “Some felt good. Back rim, in and out. It is what it is. Obviously, I wish I made those shots, but that team is physical. They force you into taking jump shots and try to keep you out of the paint. But shots just didn’t go down for me.”
Castle finished with six points on 1 of 10 from the field and 0 of 3 from beyond the arc and didn’t get his first field goal until he recorded a put-back dunk with 16.3 seconds left.
“They crowded the pick and rolls a lot, made us stagnant on the ball,” said Castle, who entered the game averaging 16.8 for the series. “When we tried to get to isolation, they took away passing lanes too, made us play one-on-one a lot.”
While the Knicks contained Fox and Castle, they had no answer for Harper.
“Shout out to Jersey’s own Dylan Harper,” New York center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “He’s the real deal.”