NBA FINALS: KNICKS VS. SPURS

June 4, 2026

De'Aaron Fox

San Antonio Spurs

Practice Day

Q. De'Aaron, you guys were behind in two of the series so far, and you also lost home court to Portland. You guys were able to bounce back. How is the spirit of the team right now, and how do you keep this going in the Finals?

DE'AARON FOX: We know it's a long series. Obviously you want to win every game that you have on your home court, but it's not the way it happens every day. We try to go in and fix the things we need to fix. Obviously we want a different outcome.

Q. De'Aaron, what's the sweet spot between you and Dylan being able to control things, get into the paint, create shots for other people, and also making sure Vic gets his touches down the stretch of games?

DE'AARON FOX: There's been things that we've been doing all season. There is a balance to it. But for us, it's just when we have the ball moving and we get the defense to rotate, it naturally comes back to the guys that it's supposed to come back to.

We're not necessarily thinking -- obviously unless Vic is like, I want the ball or he gets to his spot and he's demanding the ball, other than that, we have a pretty free-flowing offense where paint touches are key, and then when we get the defense moving, Vic gets easy shots. He doesn't have to go one-on-one or have to fight through physicality the whole time.

That or Dylan gets a layup or Dev gets a three. We have such a free-flowing offense that those things happen and the person that the ball is supposed to find, it finds.

Q. I've been watching you since Kentucky days, Sacramento, and you kind of play always poised, like a different poise. This team I don't see you with the confidence that you used to play all across your career. Can you take us through how difficult it has been this year, in these Finals, and how you've managed to change the route?

DE'AARON FOX: I mean, I've got to make shots. That's the only thing that I think is different at times.

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.

Q. You might have touched on this, but is there anything you would change about your game last night beyond just the making and missing of shots?

DE'AARON FOX: No, I don't think so. Obviously the two turnovers up until that last 10 seconds, whatever it was. But no, at the end of the day, got to put the ball in the basket.

Q. De'Aaron, related to the question you answered a little while ago, the balance there of not taking as many shots here as you did before, do you find in a close game, especially when the stakes are this high, is it a little tougher to get into a rhythm in the fourth quarter when you haven't gotten as many shots up through the first three quarters?

DE'AARON FOX: Not necessarily. There's been times where that's happened. I think we were down one with two minutes left, and I got a pull-up at the dots in the paint that I just missed.

But no, like I said, you try to be an efficient player. You have to make -- something I would consider an easy shot, you've got to make it. There's nothing else really to it.

Q. You've known HB [Harrison Barnes] for a long time. Has he ever showed you his championship ring?

DE'AARON FOX: I've actually never seen HB's championship ring. I saw Shump's [Iman Shumpert]. I think I saw Tristan's [Tristan Thompson]. Have I seen HB's? I might have seen it when we first got together, but I definitely don't remember.

I think he said his mom has it, because I think I asked him earlier this year where he keeps it, and I'm pretty sure he said his mom has it.

Q. You were talking about paint touches earlier. How did you like your process offensively as a team yesterday in terms of touching the paint and then spreading it out to find good shots? Was the process an issue or something that they were doing defensively that was an issue, or is it just a kind of make-or-miss league?

DE'AARON FOX: Throughout the course of the game, I think we were decent. 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.

Q. In the past series after a loss, you come out of the film session feeling pretty confident. After last night were you able to see the film or able to see something that y'all can tweak or fix?

DE'AARON FOX: Yeah, we were up one with, I think, three minutes left. We weren't able to score at the end of the game, and obviously ended up losing the game by 10.

Throughout the course of the game, we were in the game, and we gave ourselves chances to win. We went on runs. We got bigger leads. We just have to figure out a way to sustain it. That's keeping them off the glass, not giving up second-chance points. Last time we had the lead, we were up one, gave up an offensive rebound, JB hits a three and then we didn't have a lead for the rest of the game.

Those are kind of the nuances of how we have to play if we want to try to win this series.

Q. When you see a player like Brunson get that kind of rhythm down the stretch, knowing the kind of player he is, do you change things for next game, or do you just stick with the plan and let's see what you guys can do better next time?

DE'AARON FOX: Yeah, I think we did a fairly good job throughout the course of the game, but he definitely got it going toward the end of the game. There were times where, just anybody but Jalen; make somebody else shoot the ball. Not necessarily just giving somebody else an open shot because that's a team that has a good offense and has really good shooters. But you want someone else trying to make a tough shot.

Trying to make it tough on him, sometimes you send two at him, sometimes you just corral him when he comes off of a ball screen. Just try to find ways to get the ball out of his hands without just giving somebody else a warmup jump shot.