The San Antonio Spurs are hoping a change of scenery and good old home cooking back in the Alamo City will allow them to extend the NBA Finals to a Game 6 back at Madison Square Garden in New York. In order for that to happen they\u2019ll need to handle business tonight in Game 5 at Frost Bank Arena on the banks of the scenic San Antonio Riverwalk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heading into Game 5 the biggest question has to be the mental state of Spurs starting point guard De\u2019Aron Fox whose attempted layup on a break with the team up by one point with approximately 11 seconds left was blocked by New York Knicks star OG Anunoby, leading to Anunoby\u2019s game-winning tip in that cemented the largest comeback in NBA Finals history (29 points). The issue is Fox didn\u2019t need to score. All he needed to do was hold the basketball and make the Knicks foul him and step up to the line and make his free throws, instead his play led to OG\u2019s huge tip in that won it and sent MSG into a frenzy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fox Gets Support From Unlikely Source<\/p>\n
In the midst of prepping for Game 5, social media has been a buzz since Fox\u2019s mental blunder played a huge role in his team losing a game they dominated for three quarters. So instead of taking two in Manhattan as the Knicks did in San Antonio in Games 1 and 2 the Spurs are clinging to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking on NBA Today on Friday, Detroit Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff, who led the team to the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference this past season had this to say about Fox and how his team needs to handle him and the aftermath of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love you, and we need you. We understand what his talents are, and how good he\u2019s been as an All-Star before as a floor leader, as a floor general,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cSo, all we need you to do is be who you are, and who you are is good enough. The outside noise doesn\u2019t matter. The outside noise has no impact on the job that he has to do \u2014 what his teammates think of him, what his coaching staff thinks of him. You\u2019re hoping for three more games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitch Johnson Says Nothing Will Change His Strong Opinion Of His Point Guard<\/p>\n
During Friday\u2019s media session, Fox\u2019s head coach Mitch Johnson let it be known that they will not deviate from Fox having the basketball in his hands because he and Fox\u2019s teammates have the utmost trust in him. Johnson petty much said the opinions of outsiders don\u2019t matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get into social media,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve been fired 212 times, and we\u2019ve traded Fox 72 times. People have their opinions. I don\u2019t care. I care what the people that matter in our building, our organization, in that locker room, that they know how I feel. De\u2019Aaron Fox will have the basketball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow, and I have the utmost confidence he\u2019s going to deliver like he\u2019s done countless times for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swipa Da Fox Still Confident In Self<\/p>\n
Fox\u2019s struggles at times during the playoffs and in the NBA Finals have been well documented. The former All-Star guard is still recovering from a high ankle\u00a0\u00a0sprain suffered in the second round against the Timberwolves. And while he\u2019s pushed through you can see he\u2019s still limited in some of the things he usually does with ease on the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Friday Fox sounded undaunted by the critics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like people have my phone number and can call me,\u201d Fox said smiling. \u201cI don\u2019t watch those shows. It doesn\u2019t matter. It is what it is. Can\u2019t change it now. It 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
Series Is Far From Over<\/p>\n
Despite being down 3-1 the Spurs can take solace in knowing they\u2019ve held a double-digit lead in every game. A few plays go their way and they could have been on the precipice of a sixth franchise championship and first since 2014, their longest drought since their first win in 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, the Spurs were better than the Knicks in both games at MSG and kept the mostly bandwagon celebrity row crowd in the arena at bay, until they didn\u2019t. But, one for sure and two things for certain, the Spurs have no fear of playing at MSG and they\u2019ll look to play at least one more game there this season and series.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Antonio Spurs are hoping a change of scenery and good old home cooking back in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[67672,7,296,188,3860,93380,3578,3361,6,191,297,474],"class_list":["post-760635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-2026-nba-finals","tag-basketball","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-deu2019aaron-fox","tag-jb-bickerstaff","tag-mitch-johnson","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-pistons","tag-san-antonio-spurs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116747163658926812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}