SAN ANTONIO — For such a young group in the most pressurized situation of their collective careers, the Spurs find themselves in a strange sense of calm, despite surrendering home-court advantage in the NBA Finals.
A decent portion of that emotional control stems from De’Aaron Fox — the veteran point guard who struggled in Game 1, finishing with just 7 points on 3-for-13 shooting and three turnovers, and who failed to convert a single outside shot. Given how heavily San Antonio relies on Fox’s presence — he played 38 minutes despite his lack of production — his ability to offer control and poise is extremely important, and his understanding of his role remains critical.
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Fox’s overall usage is essentially the lowest of his career, a shade above his rookie season, but the 28-year-old has been a positive playmaking presence since last season’s trade to the Spurs.
“I mean, I’ve got to make shots,” Fox said on Thursday. “Obviously I’m not shooting the ball as much. But coming here, I knew that was the way it was going to be. As a player, you sacrifice for the betterment of the team. There are times where I need to take shots or times where I don’t take as many shots, but at the end of the day, you need to make the shots that you take.”
Zooming out a bit, Fox’s overall shot quality in Game 1 was remarkably better than the previous 17 playoff games, which lines up with his and the team’s Monday morning quarterback assessment. Still, in terms of his downhill gravity and how it relates to San Antonio’s overall floor spacing, there needs to be improvement heading into a must-win Game 2.
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Nearly half of the Spurs’ 3s came as a result of the Knicks’ compact defensive shell, according to Synergy tracking data (somewhat similar to the Thunder’s approach), resulting in clean looks. But if this team continues to convert just 25% of those shots, this series’ tension will gradually reduce. Shot creation is the end product of an equation that factors in pace and personnel, but it certainly felt like New York’s defense often dictated how the Spurs operated, and their redundancy grew over time.
“In the half-court, I think when we got to our plays, we kind of seen a similar look for the most part,” Stephon Castle said Thursday. “Kind of created the same shot over and over. But I think just not getting bored with making the right read over and over again is something that we have to look to do for next game.”
“Thought some of the 3s felt rushed,” head coach Mitch Johnson said. “There’s a lot of things offensively, the ripple effect can be rather grand when you pull back the layers and get into the weeds. We have to continue to respect our style of play and brand of basketball.”
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Fox’s ability to drive, which often turns into a three-headed monster once the likes of Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper get involved off secondary and tertiary actions, didn’t feel as prevalent.
Prior to Game 1, San Antonio turned the ball over on around 7% of their drives (including passing on 34.4% of them), according to Second Spectrum tracking data. Against New York, those mistakes swelled to over 9%, which would rank worst among all teams to have played a playoff game this season. Fox and Castle combined for five turnovers against a Knicks team with a slew of hungry wings camping out in passing lanes daring the Spurs guards to enter into uncharted territory.
The decline in paint touches also spoke to a larger theme surrounding Fox’s synergy with Victor Wembanyama (or lack thereof) and the instability that created. But returning to regular programming — whether it’s being more forceful with two-man actions, inverted ball screens or Fox and Castle simply imposing their will — seems to be the thesis heading into Game 2.
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“Really I think the reason we lost that game isn’t even technical,” Wembanyama said. “It’s not even technical, tactical. We need to approach the game with a better mental state. We just need to play our game. We just need to be normal. We don’t need to do anything incredible.”
“Throughout the course of the game, I think we were decent,” Fox said. “I think toward the end of the game, we got a little bit worse at it, and obviously they ramped up the pressure, kind of kept us out of the paint. But the process was there, and that was the way we got our lead. That was the way we got to an 11-point lead. But we have to try to continue that process over and over. If you’re not making shots, you’re not making shots, but that shouldn’t change the process.”
