All eyes are on Victor Wembanyama.
But all ears are on De’Aaron Fox.
The Spurs point guard and one of their veteran leaders at 28 years old, Fox made it clear Sunday that he believes San Antonio can recover from a 2-0 deficit against the Knicks in the NBA Finals.
“We’ve lost a Game 1 at home and we’ve been able to fight back,” Fox told The California Post. “We’ve played well on the road throughout the course of the playoffs. I don’t think any of us in the locker room are thinking we can’t do it.”
Fox’s unyielding belief in the Spurs is powerful and penetrating for a young team that features the 22-year-old Wembanyama, 21-year-old Stephon Castle and 20-year-old Dylan Harper.
The Spurs are facing a daunting challenge considering only five teams in NBA history have recovered from a 2-0 Finals deficit, and no team has ever done it after dropping its first two games at home.
For the Spurs, it’s obvious that Game 3 is essentially a do-or-die contest.
Fox intends to do everything he can to make sure his team has the requisite intensity in Game 3 on Monday, including modeling it himself.
The two-time All-Star struggled in Game 1 with seven points on 3-for-13 shooting. He bounced back in Game 2 with a 20-point performance on 8-for-12 shooting, going 2-for-2 from beyond the arc.
He plans to take things to another level in Game 3.
“It could go downhill quickly or we could fight back,” Fox told The California Post. “So, for me, you want to come out and just be aggressive and just allow our team to follow suit.”
When Fox speaks, the Spurs’ locker room listens.
While role players Harrison Barnes and Luke Kornet have been a part of championship teams, Fox is a star with playoff experience, a rare commodity on the Spurs.
“He’s an experienced guy that we’ve always been able to turn to when we need it,” Wembanyama said. “Especially I think it’s easy to forget that our guards are really young, how precious he’s been for them.”
Fox has helped guide the Spurs behind the scenes throughout the season.
During a game against the Warriors before the All-Star break in February, he felt as though his team didn’t have the requisite focus so he took over a timeout and posed a question to his teammates. “Do we want to be the team that every [opponent] wants in the playoffs?” he asked.
His words helped shake the Spurs out of their short-lived stupor as they went on to finish with the second-best record in the league this season at 62-20.
Fox averaged 18.6 points on 48.6 percent shooting, 6.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds a game, a marked dip from his career-high 26.6 points he averaged for the Kings in 2023-24.
He’s still capable of producing those eye-popping numbers, but he has willingly sacrificed touches while playing alongside Wembanyama after the Kings traded him to the Spurs in February 2025.
His selflessness hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially by Barnes, who played alongside Fox in Sacramento before they both landed in San Antonio.
“It’s huge,” Barnes told The California Post. “It can’t be stated enough the things he’s done. When he came here last year, I think he had in the same week 50 and 60 points, you know what I mean? I think those things aren’t talked about enough. You talk about the youth of this team. This is his second playoff run.”
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Fox has gained his teammates’ respect for many reasons, including his lack of ego, his skills and his leadership.
Before joining the Spurs, Fox helped lead the Kings to the No. 3 seed in the West and snap a 16-year playoff drought in 2023.
Now he has an even greater challenge.
He’s trying to help the Spurs believe in themselves while the world has already counted them out.
“There’s a reason why we’re so good,” Fox told The California Post. “We have a talented group. We have a group that is willing to share, willing to play together and we want to continue to do that. But we need to play better.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
