{"id":265156,"date":"2026-06-13T01:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265156\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T01:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:20:13","slug":"spurs-confident-in-deaaron-fox-despite-game-4-blunders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265156\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs confident in De’Aaron Fox despite Game 4 blunders"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Despite a fourth quarter littered with blunders in an epic 29-point collapse in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday<\/a>, Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson remains confident in starting point guard De\u2019Aaron Fox in the clutch.<\/p>\n

\u201cDe\u2019Aaron Fox will have the basketball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow,\u201d Johnson said after practice at Frost Bank Center on Friday. \u201cAnd I have the utmost confidence he\u2019s going to deliver like he\u2019s done countless times for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox was on the receiving end of criticism and scrutiny after his performance late in the Knicks\u2019 107-106 come-from-behind victory on Wednesday. He played 37 minutes and shot 6-of-16 from the field, four-of-nine from 3-point range and finished with 18 points, seven assists, five rebounds, two steals, a block and four turnovers.<\/p>\n

But only three of his 18 points came in the fourth quarter, and instead of dribbling the clock out with a one-point lead on the Spurs\u2019 second-to-last offensive possession, Fox took an ill-advised transition layup that was blocked by OG Anunoby, a sequence that ultimately set up Anunoby\u2019s game-winning tip-in<\/a> on Jalen Brunson\u2019s late-game attempt from downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like people have my phone number and can call me. I don\u2019t watch those shows. It doesn\u2019t matter. It is what it is. Can\u2019t change it now. [It\u2019s not like people are] just coming up and yelling in your face about it,\u201d Fox said after practice at Frost Bank Center on Friday. \u201cIt is what it is. We\u2019re trying to move on from that, continue to learn from the mistakes we made, how we lost the lead, finished the game poorly. We think about the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said outside opinions don\u2019t matter, only the voices within the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak for everybody else. I don\u2019t get into social media. I think I\u2019ve been fired 212 times and we\u2019ve traded Fox 72 times. We still have to show up and play tomorrow, and I\u2019ve got to coach,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what comes with the job. People have their opinions. I don\u2019t care. I care what the people that matter in our building and in our organization, in that locker room, that they know how I feel. I hear them, how they feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

WEMBY NOT WORRIED<\/p>\n

Spurs franchise cornerstone Victor Wembanyama said he\u2019s not worried about Knicks fans set to infiltrate Frost Bank Center for Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s not a concern,\u201d he said after practice at his home arena on Friday. \u201cI mean, we got good defense here in the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, TickPick reported 37% of ticket sales for Game 5 in San Antonio were billed to addresses in New York with an additional 8% of ticket sales billed to addresses in New Jersey. As of Friday morning, according to Gametime, roughly 54% of tickets were billed to addresses in New York and surrounding areas, meaning Spurs fans have been selling their tickets to Knicks fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are making money. It\u2019s the economy we live in. It\u2019s the world we live in,\u201d said Fox. \u201cAm I upset about it? No. Do I understand it? Sure.\u2028I don\u2019t think that changes what happens on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

The get-in price for Game 5 also surged by $1,000, with the cheapest tickets as of June 10 clocking in at nearly $2,500.<\/p>\n

FATIGUE FACTOR<\/p>\n

Wembanyama said he doesn\u2019t have time to worry about fatigue entering Game 5 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] definitely a factor, but it\u2019s the playoffs. Everybody\u2019s just as tired,\u201d he said after practice on Friday. \u201cI mean, it shouldn\u2019t even be a factor in the game. Now we\u2019ve got two days in-between games. It\u2019s not going to be a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wembanyama is averaging more than 40 minutes per game in the NBA Finals. He averaged 29.2 minutes per game during the regular season and less than 30 minutes through the first two rounds of the Western Conference playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had that discussion throughout the season of his buildup of minutes. He\u2019s played heavy minutes at times through the games. All minutes aren\u2019t created equal. Some quarters are slow, reviews, timeouts, a game can get going like that,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cLooking back on it, I do believe that I have to make sure that I help him have the energy required to finish the game as strong as he needs to finish the game. Looking back on the game, I think I could have done better in that regard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a number of minutes. That\u2019s not meaning he\u2019s going to play this many minutes tomorrow. It\u2019s looking back on the game, and that game in itself, I got to make sure that I help with that. I think I could have been better in that regard looking back from that game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Despite a fourth quarter littered with blunders in an epic 29-point collapse in Game 4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[34508,10663,37011,9,11,10,61699,10221],"class_list":["post-265156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-knicks","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}