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By Matthew Couden
Contributing Writer
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Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce believes the San Antonio Spurs would have a much better chance to even the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks if they made a significant lineup change.
"The Truth" spoke with his former Boston Celtics teammate, Kevin Garnett, on their recent "Ticket & the Truth" podcast about the Knicks-Spurs matchup after San Antonio won its first game of the series. According to Pierce, Dylan Harper should be in the starting lineup.
"If I'm San Antonio, I'm bringing Fox off the bench. I've had enough. Dylan Harper is playing too good, but on the flipside, Harper is good coming off the bench," Pierce said, adding that De'Aaron Fox is "singlehandedly keeping the Knicks in the game" due to his recent performances on the court.
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"He gotta make shots. I look at Fox as a scorer, bro. He is not hitting shots," the Celtics legend said. "Fox has always been known as a scorer. He's getting good looks, too. It's not like they doing anything in the scouting report to limit Fox ... He's just not making shots."
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Garnett argued that it's a credit to the Knicks playing good defense on him, but Pierce seemed to disagree, believing the Spurs might be running away with the series if Fox came off the bench.
Interestingly, Fox had a strong shooting and scoring performance in Game 2 of the series, which was a one-point loss in San Antonio. He shot 66.7 percent, making 8 of 12 field goals, including both 3-pointers he attempted, to finish with 20 points. Game 1 and Game 3 were much different stories, though.
He shot 23.1 percent in Game 1 and 28.6 percent in Game 3, finishing with seven and 12 points, respectively. Game 1 was a 10-point loss, while Game 3 was a Spurs' four-point win, their first victory of the series.
It's also worth noting that Fox, the veteran of this Spurs team, was dealing with an injury previously in his team's playoffs run. Harper started in multiple games when Fox was unable to play or start, and performed admirably.
Still, Fox's veteran experience likely outweighs the talented Harper's youthful inexperience, and may be the reason Mitch Johnson prefers one player starting over the other.
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