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Warriors’ Draymond Green compares De’Aaron Fox, JR Smith’s boneheaded NBA Finals gaffes
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- Warriors’ Draymond Green compares De’Aaron Fox, JR Smith’s boneheaded NBA Finals gaffes
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De'Aaron Fox's layup attempt in the final seconds of the San Antonio Spurs ' Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks will live in infamy. The head-scratching decision set up an OG Anunoby game-winner that capped off a 29-point Knicks comeback, the largest in NBA playoff history. Following the loss, Draymond Green compared the play to JR Smith 's blunder during Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers .
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"In the spirit of dumbness… what was the dumber play? De'Aaron Fox laying that ball up or JR Smith vs. us in Game 1 of those finals?" Green asked the Inside the NBA crew.
Shaquille O'Neal answered without hesitation.
"Oh, this one," he said.
It's clear why O'Neal felt Fox's mistake was worse than Smith's. The Spurs were leading with no shot clock when Fox attempted the shot , while the Cavaliers and Warriors were tied when Smith forgot the score in the final seconds of regulation.
Charles Barkley agreed but said Fox's blunder wasn't what bothered him most about the Spurs' historic collapse.
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De'Aaron Fox's late-game mistake caps off Spurs' historic collapse
Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
The Hall of Famer instead pointed to the Spurs' three-point-heavy shot diet during the second half as the most dumbfounding part of the loss.
"JR just got confused on the score, but Dray, [the Fox shot] isn't my problem with today's game," Barkley said. "When you've got that big of a lead, and you take five, six, seven, eight threes in a row, I'm like, 'Damn! You've got that big lead, and you take eight threes in a row?' You've got Victor [ Wembanyama ] out there. I don't think there's ever a reason to take eight threes in a row if it's a tie game, but when you've got a 25-point lead, and you miss eight straight threes, that's just bad. And they weren't even thinking about using the clock either."
The Spurs made an NBA Finals record 14 threes in the first half and led by 29 points in the opening minutes of the second half. However, they shot 4-for-20 from the field and 2-for-12 from three in the third quarter, allowing the Knicks to cut the deficit to 15 entering the fourth quarter.
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San Antonio veered away from three-pointers in the fourth but struggled to regain their first-half rhythm. Mitch Johnson's squad scored 16 points while shooting 4-for-19 from the field and 1-of-5 from three with four turnovers during the final period.
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