{"id":15156064,"date":"2026-06-12T20:41:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/spurs-coach-johnson-has-utmost-confidence-in-fox-despite-game-4-struggles\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T23:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T03:10:56","slug":"spurs-coach-johnson-has-utmost-confidence-in-fox-despite-game-4-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/spurs-coach-johnson-has-utmost-confidence-in-fox-despite-game-4-struggles\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs coach Johnson has &#039;utmost confidence&#039; in Fox despite Game 4 struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson is standing behind point guard <a data-in-app-uri=\"thescore:\/\/\/nba\/players\/53733\" href=\"https:\/\/thescore.com\/nba\/players\/53733\">De&#8217;Aaron Fox<\/a> following his rough performance against the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t get into social media,&#8221; Johnson told reporters Friday, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/49042941\/mitch-johnson-emphasizes-belief-deaaron-fox-ahead-game-5\">ESPN&#8217;s Michael C. Wright<\/a>. &#8220;I think I&#8217;ve been fired 212 times, and we&#8217;ve traded Fox 72 times. People have their opinions. I don&#8217;t care. I care what the people that matter &#8211; in our building, our organization, in that locker room &#8211; that they know how I feel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;De&#8217;Aaron Fox will have the basketball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow, and I have the utmost confidence he&#8217;s going to deliver like he&#8217;s done countless times for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"the-score-article-ad-unit\"><\/div>\n<p>Fox scored 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting to go along with four turnovers Wednesday, which marked the third time in four games that he&#8217;s shot below 40% from the field.<\/p>\n<p>The two-time All-Star was particularly ineffective down the stretch, tallying only three points on 1-of-5 shooting as well as a minus-12 rating in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Fox was also heavily <a data-in-app-uri=\"thescore:\/\/\/news\/3552593\" href=\"https:\/\/thescore.com\/news\/3552593\">scrutinized<\/a> for his controversial decision to attempt a transition layup with 12 seconds remaining instead of dribbling out a portion of the clock before being fouled. His shot was blocked by Knicks wing <a data-in-app-uri=\"thescore:\/\/\/nba\/players\/46480\" href=\"https:\/\/thescore.com\/nba\/players\/46480\">OG Anunoby<\/a>, who moments later provided a dramatic go-ahead tip-in to cap New York&#8217;s historic 29-point comeback win.<\/p>\n<p>Fox says he hasn&#8217;t paid attention to the criticism and is only focused on the task ahead.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not like people have my phone number and can call me,&#8221; Fox said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t watch those shows. It doesn&#8217;t matter. It is what it is. Can&#8217;t change it now. It is what it is. We&#8217;re trying to move on from that, continue to learn from the mistakes we made, how we lost the lead, finished the game poorly. We think about the next game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Spurs are looking to become just the second team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit in the Finals.<\/p>\n<p>Game 5 takes place Saturday in San Antonio at 8:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p><small><em>Copyright &copy; 2026 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<p class=\"inmi-source\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/thescore.com\/nba\/news\/3553006\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sports Basketball \u2013 The Score<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson is standing behind point guard De&#8217;Aaron Fox following his rough performance against the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.&#8221;I don&#8217;t get into social media,&#8221; Johnson told reporters Friday, including\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15156066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15156064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094.jpg",640,480,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-620x465.jpg",620,465,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094.jpg",640,480,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094.jpg",640,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094.jpg",640,480,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094.jpg",640,480,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094.jpg",640,480,false],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-640x446.jpg",640,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094.jpg",640,480,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-510x480.jpg",510,480,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15156064-w640xh480_gettyimages-2249067094-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"<a 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