De’Aaron Fox compared Game 3 to a fight after the Knicks surged into halftime control, then watched the Spurs answer in the fourth quarter to win 115-111 and move the Finals series to 2-1.
The noise at Madison Square Garden didn’t fade when the Spurs walked into the locker room at halftime of Game 3. If anything, it felt louder—because the Knicks were shaping the game the way their postseason run had trained them to. And for De’Aaron Fox, that moment carried a simple, physical truth.
“It’s like a fight, a UFC fight, boxing fight, whatever it is. You get hit, you’re wobbly at the end of a round,” Fox said. “We gave up 42 points and only scored 24 points in that quarter. It was a break we needed. We didn’t need to waste a timeout.”
The Spurs didn’t waste it. When Game 3 flipped late, they outscored the Knicks by four in the fourth quarter to seal a 115-111 win, closing the series gap to 2-1.
Fox described the reset as it happened—San Antonio showing up after halftime with purpose.
“We came out in the second half, and we hit them first, tied the game up quickly,” Fox said. “There are definitely times where you want to try to stop a run. They finished that quarter (second) great. We didn’t finish it well. Once we did that, we came out and we hit first. It kind of felt like a new game for us.”.
The win had been built on early starts. the kind that matters when the crowd is trying to pull you off rhythm. As they had in the first two games of the series, the Spurs began strong. They led by eight after the first quarter. then by nine as well. before pushing an 11-point advantage into the second period of Game 3.
Fox kept returning to the question that always follows a lead: can you keep doing it, or do you just live on one good stretch?
“Every game we’ve played, I think we’ve had the bigger lead in all these games,” Fox said. “The big thing is, how can we sustain the way that we’re playing. I think in the first half, we’ve come out, hit first. They’ve responded. Sometimes we didn’t respond well. We kind of kept the games close. But I think we responded well to their run.”.
At halftime, Fox said the team focused on getting back to the habits that brought them there in the first place—ball movement, defensive stops, and avoiding the small mistakes that can swing a Finals momentum shift.
“We’re thinking to ourselves. how can we get back to playing the way we were playing. with the ball moving. getting stops. not giving up offensive rebounds. not turning the ball over. ” Fox noted. “Whenever we were able to do that. I think that’s why we were able to. one. get back into the game and. two. grow our lead and finish the game off.”.
He also knew not everything went perfectly for him personally. Fox hit a huge shot with 12.2 seconds left to put the Spurs up by five, but his overall night wasn’t sharp—he went 4-of-14 from the floor, including 0-of-5 from 3-point range.
“You continue to play the right way. I think that’s all it is. Make or miss, I’m not just going to be forcing shots because I’m hot or because I’m missing shots,” Fox said.
That mindset, he explained, is tied to one specific idea: the offense works when the Spurs keep moving the ball.
“We always talk about it. when we’re moving the ball. regardless of who it is. the ball finds who it needs to find. We continue to play that way. Like I said, we don’t want to come here and then change what we’re doing. There’s a reason we got here. There’s a reason we’ve been competing at a high level this entire season.”.
With Game 4 next in New York City, the series now sits at 2-1. It’s a chance for San Antonio to fully dig out of a 0-2 hole—built on the same lesson Fox put into words at halftime: in this round of basketball, you don’t just take hits. You answer them.
NBA Finals Spurs Knicks De'Aaron Fox Game 3 115-111 Madison Square Garden series 2-1