OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Once again, San Antonio All-Star guard De'Aaron Fox tried to go through a pregame workout. And once again, his right ankle remained a problem.
Fox was ruled out of Game 2 of the Spurs' Western Conference finals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, the second consecutive game he has missed because of the ankle issue. The Spurs kept Dylan Harper in the starting lineup in his place.
But the injury situation
for the Spurs got worse when Harper left in the second half with what the team called a right leg injury. He took two awkward falls about a minute apart in the third quarter, and was ruled out not long afterward.
The Spurs held out hope until about an hour before game time that Fox could play, and coach Mitch 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. The team has not revealed what is causing the ankle soreness.
“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 this season's 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 into 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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