San Antonio Spurs point guard De’Aaron Fox responded to his critics following the foolish blunder he made in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
With just 15 seconds left to go in the game, Fox got the ball back for San Antonio following a missed shot by Jalen Brunson, with the Spurs up one point over the New York Knicks, 106-105.
Instead of dribbling the ball out and waiting for the New York Knicks to foul him, since the Knicks had to do so to get the ball back, Fox, for some reason, went for a lay-up and was denied at the rim by Knicks wing OG Anunoby.
The Knicks got the ball back, and Anunoby scored on a tip-in with just 1.2 seconds left to give the Knicks the 107-106 win and a commanding 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals.
The 29-point choke job by the Spurs was the biggest in NBA Finals history. Everyone on the team was clowned online afterwards, but Fox took the brunt of it.
The blunder by Fox, who should have waited to be fouled, has seen him get heavily criticized by talking heads all over television and social media, many of whom have labeled it as one of the lowest-IQ basketball plays of all time.
But Fox is taking it in stride.
De’Aaron Fox Responds to His Critics
Speaking to the media on Friday ahead of Saturday’s Game 5 at Frost Bank Center, Fox shared his thoughts when asked what he thinks of all the heavy criticism he has received in the wake of his Game 4 blunder, including from many former NBA players who are now television analysts.
“It’s not like people have my phone number and can call me. I don’t watch those shows. It doesn’t matter. It is what it is, can’t change it now. Just coming up yelling at you in your face about it. It is what it is. We’re trying to move on from that. Obviously, continue to learn from the mistakes that we made and how we lost the lead or how we finished the game poorly, but we think about the next game,” Fox said.
“It’s not like people have my phone number and can call me. I don’t watch those shows. It doesn’t matter.”
Spurs Favored to Win Game 5
The good news for the Spurs is that, despite losing Game 4, the oddsmakers believe they will bounce back and win Game 5.
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Spurs as -192 favorites for Game 5, with the Knicks as +160 underdogs.
The Spurs will have home-court advantage in Game 5, so that’s why they are the -5.5 point favorites to win this game. But they also lost Games 1 and 2 at home back at Frost Bank Center, so there’s no sure thing that they will win this game just because they are on their own home court.
Still, they’re going to put up a good fight, and they have to after what happened in Game 4 with their historic collapse.
This Spurs team is too good for that to happen again, so look for Fox, Victor Wembanyama, and the rest of San Antonio’s stars to perform much better in what is a must-win Game 5 at home on Saturday night.
De’Aaron Fox Responds to Critics After Foolish NBA Finals Blunder