De’Aaron Fox will miss Monday’s series opener against the Thunder due to right ankle soreness.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — San Antonio guard De’Aaron Fox was ruled out of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals with right ankle soreness, a huge blow to the Spurs going into the series opener against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
The announcement came roughly an hour before tip-off. San Antonio ruled starting guard De’Aaron Fox out of Monday night’s Western Conference Finals opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of right ankle soreness, meaning adversity hit the Spurs in the much-anticipated series before it even started.
The Thunder, meanwhile, got Jalen Williams back in their lineup after he missed six games with a left hamstring strain.
Fox spoke at the Spurs’ morning shootaround session Monday — “trying to test it out,” he said — and was on the court again in Oklahoma City about 90 minutes before tip-off of Game 1 (8:30 ET, NBC/Peacock). That second workout obviously didn’t go as hoped, and the decision was made that he wouldn’t play.
Rookie Dylan Harper, the 2025 No. 2 overall pick, will start.
Fox was averaging 18.8 points and 5.8 assists in a team-leading 33.3 minutes per game for the Spurs in these playoffs entering Monday. The Spurs haven’t revealed any specifics on the nature of the ankle issue, simply calling it soreness.
“It’s one of those deals where it’s not going away for as long as we’re playing, I don’t believe,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said.
Fox missed the first eight Spurs games of the season — and missed only three games since. The Spurs entered Monday with a 7-3 record without Fox this season.
