Spurs' Fox out of Game 2 against Thunder with ankle issue, then Harper leaves with leg injury
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — If this was the regular season, De'Aaron Fox wouldn't even be trying to play. Such is the severity of his ankle injury. And his replacement in San Antonio's starting lineup is now ailing as well.
Just like that, the Spurs have some big issues to deal with in the Western Conference finals.
Fox — the Spurs' All-Star guard — tried to go through a pregame workout Wednesday but his right ankle wasn't good enough to let him play. So, the Spurs kept Dylan Harper in the starting lineup in his place, only to see him leave in the third quarter with a leg injury.
The Spurs got a split of the first two games in Oklahoma City, but it's anyone's guess who'll start in the backcourt when the series resumes in San Antonio on Friday night.
“It's a tough injury that he wouldn't be playing with in the regular season,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said of Fox's ankle injury, the severity of which has not been fully disclosed by the team. “He's trying to tough it out.”
Harper took two awkward falls about a minute apart in the third quarter and was ruled out not long afterward. Johnson didn't have an update on him after Game 2, which Oklahoma City won 122-113 to even the series.
The Spurs held out hope until about an hour before game time that Fox could play, and Johnson — just as he did Monday — indicated that Fox's status will be a series of game-time decisions for the rest of the season.
“It’ll be pretty status quo moving forward, I believe, regardless of if he plays in games or not,” Johnson said. “This’ll be just kind of the world we live in.”
Fox was an All-Star this season for the Spurs, averaging 18.6 points per game in the regular season — second on the team behind only Victor Wembanyama's 25 points per game.
Harper — who was named to the NBA's All-Rookie first team earlier Wednesday — was brilliant in the Spurs' Game 1 win, with 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and a team playoff record seven steals.
He had 12 points in 25 minutes on Wednesday before heading to the locker room.
Harper, who turned 20 on March 2, is the second-youngest player to have appeared in this season's playoffs, behind only Minnesota's Joan Beringer and Phoenix's Khaman Maluach — both still just 19. Beringer and Maluach combined to score 24 points in the playoffs, matching the total that Harper had in Game 1 against the Thunder alone.
“He didn't just get this talented or this good,” Johnson said of Harper before the game. “For him to buy in to the role that was in front of him, for him to do what was asked and be held accountable and learn what it took and what we needed to win games and be a part of it — while probably suppressing some of his individual capabilities — is hard to do for a 19- to 20-year-old.
“For him to be able to do that and grow as a winning team player and then have his individual talent pop as well — it's hard to do in this league at any time. Doing it as a rookie in the playoffs is ridiculous.”
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