NBA FINALS: KNICKS VS. SPURS

June 8, 2026

De'Aaron Fox

San Antonio Spurs

Game 3: Postgame

San Antonio Spurs 115, New York Knicks 111

Q. It seems like a key to so many champions over the last half decade has been continuity and time playing together. You're all still in your first year together. Do you feel like your continuity has been coming together in these Playoffs? How do you continue to grow that as these games go on?

DE'AARON FOX: I mean, I think we've been close just throughout the year. Obviously getting to know each other on and off the court. But I think that's why we've been so good, because we have a bunch of, I think, good guys, guys whose personalities don't clash, people who are selfless. It's made us a good team.

We have talent. We knew we had talent. It was how well and how quickly could we gel together. I think we did it pretty quickly. You don't win 62 games by accident. I don't think you get to the Finals by accident.

We're continuing to obviously get better together. That's why we're in this position.

Q. What did you see out of your team tonight in a really difficult road environment to come and pull out a huge win?

DE'AARON FOX: I mean, every game we've played I think we've had the bigger lead in all these games. The big thing is how can we sustain the way that we're playing. I think in the first half we've come out, we've hit first. They've responded. Sometimes we didn't respond well. We kind of kept the games close.

But I think tonight we responded well to their run. They had a big one in the first half. They get up at halftime. We're thinking to ourselves how can we get back to playing the way we were playing, with the ball moving, getting stops, not giving up offensive rebounds, not turning the ball over. Whenever we were able to do that, I think that's why we were able to, one, get back into the game and, two, grow our lead and finish the game off.

Q. How good did it feel to hit that shot there after missing it earlier? How did you spend the time in New York leading up to this? Decompressing or compressing more?

DE'AARON FOX: I mean, making that shot, like I said, it's a make-or-miss league a lot of times. A lot of times it's get to your spot. If you miss that shot, like, it is what it is. You try to make that shot more often than not, obviously.

It feels good to hit a big shot down the stretch.

I mean, for us, we knew that we have a chance. It's not like we just coming out here and getting rolled. We've been in these games and we've known why we lost some of these games.

For me, I don't do much anyway, so not doing too much.

Q. I know Vic doesn't usually have bad games or games where he doesn't play up to his standards. After Game 2, what was he like? Was there any tell pregame? Does he get quieter, louder when he's ready to explode again?

DE'AARON FOX: Yeah, I mean, I would say it's the way that everybody would think a great player would react. Obviously, he was upset with himself. It's not even, like I said, about the missed shots. He would get on himself more about the turnover at the end of the game. Those things happen.

There was definitely no inkling that I thought he wouldn't come out here and respond the way that he did.

Q. You guys had one play on defense in particular about four minutes left, Wemby ended up blocking Shamet at the rim. Tell me what you were going through in that sequence.

DE'AARON FOX: Yeah, I mean, at this point when you've played a team so many times, you know what they're going to do, they know what you're going to do.

They got us in rotations. It's not a secret. Teams want to get Vic out of the paint. That's not a secret. We have gotten good about rotating around him. He's gotten better at closing out to shooters, getting guys off the line while trying to stay in front of them.

How many guys are going to get to the rim and finish over him? With someone like Landry, who shoots the skin off the ball, shoots the leather off the ball, he got him off the line, we're scrambling around him. Does he want to finish over him or not? He elected to try to finish over him. He blocked the shot.

If he passed the ball out, we're X-ing, we're X-ing around Vic, we're scrambling. I think we've guarded them pretty well. Some of their baskets, I forget what the stat was, but they're shooting a godly percentage under three seconds in the shot clock.

If you're playing 21, 22 seconds of great defense, they make a shot, tap 'em on the butt, good job. That's where we want to live. We want to live in the area of them trying to take tough shots at the end of the shot clock.

If they're making them, so be it. Usually the numbers are in our favor if we're getting them to play that deep into the shot clock.

Q. You talked about it being a make-or-miss league. Is there ever a point in a game where you realize, whether it be basketball gods, karma, this thing is just not falling for me? If so, how do you get over that? Lean on your experience?

DE'AARON FOX: You continue to play the right way. I think that's all it is. Make or miss, I'm not just going to be forcing shots because I'm hot or because I'm missing shots.

So we always talk about it, when we're moving the ball, regardless of who it is, the ball finds who it needs to find. We continue to play that way. Like I said, we don't want to come here and then change what we're doing. There's a reason we got here. There's a reason we've been competing at a high level this entire season.

Q. You talked about your halftime response. Did that halftime feel timely? We're getting this 20-minute break at the right time given how well they were playing? Maybe what was a specific point of emphasis on either end of the floor?

DE'AARON FOX: Yeah, I mean, it's like a fight. A UFC fight, boxing fight, whatever it is. You get hit. You're wobbly at the end of a round. We gave up 42 points and only scored 24 points in that quarter. It was a break we needed. We didn't need to waste a timeout.

We came out in the second half and we hit them first, tied the game up quickly. There are definitely times where you want to try to stop a run. They finished that quarter great. We didn't finish it well. Once we did that, we came out and we hit first. It kind of felt like a new game for us.

Q. Wemby called Steph maybe the most mature player on the team. What did you see from him tonight, particularly during crunch time?

DE'AARON FOX: Yeah, I mean, you kind of see it. His personality, his demeanor, that's the way that he is. He's kind of always cool. Obviously, there are times where you get frantic. That's just being young. But his game is definitely mature beyond his years.

He was big for us. Hit a big three towards the end of a shot clock. Knocks down two big free throws for us. He's guarding his tail off the entire game. His game is as mature as it can be, especially at 21 years old.