De’Aaron Fox shined enough Saturday to inspire San Antonio Spurs teammate Devin Vassell to describe the star guard’s season debut simply as “Fox being Fox.”
After missing the first two-plus weeks of the season recovering from a hamstring injury, Fox returned to the Southwest Division-leading Spurs with 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting in a victory against New Orleans.
With Fox set to make his first road appearance of the campaign Monday versus the Chicago Bulls, the Spurs know things might not always appear so seamless.
At least that’s what this Fox says, reminding the basketball world that Saturday marked his first game since March, when he underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left pinky finger shortly after arriving from Sacramento in a three-team trade.
Fox led eight Spurs who scored in double figures while adding three rebounds and three assists in more than 31 minutes.
“Obviously, there was rust. I played five on five before I got out here, but there’s definitely rust,” Fox said. “I haven’t played a game since March and then I actually didn’t play full court all summer. So, my first time really playing full court was two weeks ago.”
Victor Wembanyama followed Fox with 18 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, giving the second-year standout his first double-double since Oct. 30.
Now the Spurs will try to snap a six-game losing streak against the Bulls going back to February of 2023.
Chicago has lost two straight overall and three of four after a scorching start to the season. The Bulls struggled to contain stars Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee) and Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland) on Friday and Saturday. Now comes the challenge of stopping the two-headed terror of a healthy Fox and Wembanyama.
With usual scoring leaders Josh Giddey and Nikola Vucevic struggling through slow nights in Cleveland, Isaac Okoro (19 points) and reserve Jalen Smith (18) paced the offense.
Bulls coach Billy Donovan says the attack must “find a way collectively to generate more spacing and penetration” and could find examples from the foes that defeated them over the weekend.
“If we can create movement and spacing,” Donovan said, “and then try to get one of the guys to beat someone off the dribble and force help that way. … Sometimes when Mitchell gets the ball or Giannis gets the ball, (we) are just running at them to get the ball out of their hands. Teams are not doing that to us. They are not going to run at us to get the ball out of certain guys hands. We are going to have to create on our own that kind of help.”
Chicago squandered a 19-point second-quarter lead against the Cavaliers and a 16-point lead in the third quarter.
“End of game execution needs to be a lot better on both sides of the ball,” Giddey said.
Vucevic is averaging 24.8 points and 11.2 rebounds in his past five games against the Spurs, while Patrick Williams has scored in double figures in five straight games versus San Antonio.
