The San Antonio Spurs need to run through Dylan Harper more. He’s young. He’s inexperienced. He’s not perfect. He’s not always the best three-point shooter. But when the ball is in his hands, the Spurs have a good shot to score. And right now, when the ball is in De’Aaron Fox’s hands, things haven’t been going well.
Fox struggled mightily in Game 4. He just doesn’t look like himself right now, and when the game’s seconds were ticking down, he made the biggest mistake of the night. Instead of holding the ball, he missed a layup, and the New York Knicks hit a game-winner right afterward.
Right now, Fox is making it clear that Mitch Johnson and the Spurs have to put the ball in Harper’s hands even more.
Spurs need to use Dylan Harper more than De'Aaron Fox
Caitlin Cooper of Basketball, She Wrote pointed out a very interesting stat on Twitter after the game, noting just how much Fox had the ball in the second half of Game 4:
“Fox had 44 touches in the second half, the most of any Spur. Only 5 touched the paint. San Antonio scored 0.387 points per chance out of his touches. He shot 2-of-6 w/ 2 turnovers when defended by OG.
“No one for the Spurs attempted more than six shots against any match-up.”
Nobody on the Spurs touched the ball more than Fox in the second half of the game. In the second half, Fox put up five points, four rebounds, one assist, and four turnovers, shooting a woeful 2-of-8 from the floor and 1-of-4 from beyond the three-point arc.
It was brutal. The Spurs needed Fox to be the Clutch Player of the Year version of himself. It was the biggest game of their season. And he crumbled under the pressure.
Harper didn’t shoot particularly well in the second half, shooting 2-of-5 from the field and 0-of-3 from deep. But in the first half, he was 6-of-7 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep. He had 15 points, two rebounds, and three assists.
Fox was great in the first half, too. But as soon as things started to go downhill for Fox, the Spurs should have put the ball back in Harper’s hands more often. But they didn’t.
Instead, Fox kept running the show. Over, and over, and over again, the ball was in Fox’s hands, and the Spurs blew a 29-point lead.
Harper needs the ball. He needs to be much more of an offensive focal point late in games than he was in Game 4.
It’s time for Fox to give the reins to Harper.
