{"id":30439,"date":"2026-05-25T01:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/spurs-notes-barnes-wembanyama-fox-backcourt\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T01:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:21:23","slug":"spurs-notes-barnes-wembanyama-fox-backcourt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/spurs-notes-barnes-wembanyama-fox-backcourt\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs Notes: Barnes, Wembanyama, Fox, Backcourt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>While most of the <strong>Spurs<\/strong>\u2018 key players have never played this deep into the postseason, veteran forward <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barneha02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-24_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Harrison Barnes<\/a><\/strong> has appeared in 85 playoff games and found himself in a situation during Golden State\u2019s 2015 championship run that\u2019s similar to the one San Antonio is currently facing.<\/p>\n<p>The Warriors trailed <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-24_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LeBron James<\/a><\/strong> and the Cavaliers 2-1 in the 2015 NBA Finals and came back to win the series, with their young star <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-24_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stephen Curry<\/a><\/strong> leading the way. Can <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-24_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a><\/strong> and the Spurs, down 2-1 against the defending champion Thunder, pull off a similar feat in this year\u2019s Western Conference finals?<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of saying, \u2018Look, however many games the series goes, are we going to play to our standard when we look back at those games?&#8217;\u201d <\/em>Barnes told <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7302268\/2026\/05\/23\/victor-wembanyama-spurs-struggles-game-3-thunder\/?source=emp_shared_article&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.klA.fu7E.0uqF4eRGETz7\" rel=\"noopener\">Jared Weiss of The Athletic<\/a>. <em>\u201cThe last few games, can we have said that? No. And so going into this next game, what is it going to take for us to do that?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s more on the Spurs ahead of a critical Game 4:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"longlis\">\n<li>Wembanyama averaged just over 29 minutes per game during the regular season and just shy of 33 minutes per game in the first two rounds of the playoffs (not counting the two games he left early due to an injury or suspension). Through the first three games of the third round vs. Oklahoma City, he has played 41.7 MPG and the Spurs have outscored the Thunder by 21 points during his time on the floor. Although San Antonio has been outscored by 38 points when Wemby hasn\u2019t been on the court, further increasing the big man\u2019s playing time isn\u2019t a viable strategy, according to head coach <strong>Mitch Johnson<\/strong>. <em>\u201cThe idea is there,\u201d <\/em>Johnson said with a smile, per <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/thunder-spurs-west-finals-wembanyama-gilgeousalexander-af20d7b6619a8695bec54a007ebe5358\" rel=\"noopener\">Raul Dominguez of The Associated Press<\/a>.<em> \u201cBut, yeah, I think as we\u2019ve seen it, him fresh or somewhat fresh is still the best. \u2026 We don\u2019t want to sacrifice our style of play and the identity that we\u2019ve been building since October.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li>In <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48857143\/why-san-antonio-spurs-victor-wembanyama-most-dominant-skill-remains-mystery-western-conference-finals\" rel=\"noopener\">an interesting story for ESPN<\/a>, Baxter Holmes explores how difficult it is to quantify the fear that Wembanyama\u2019s interior presence instills in opponents and how many plays he prevents from ever happening. <em>\u201cEveryone likes pointing out the videos where guys drive into the paint and then just dribble it out,\u201d <\/em>an Eastern Conference analytics staffer said.<em> \u201cI think it\u2019s even more than that. I think it\u2019s whether they drive in the first place. They\u2019ve got a menu in their head of, \u2018This is what I can do in this possession,\u2019 and driving to the rim is just not on the menu.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li>While <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/foxde01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-24_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">De\u2019Aaron Fox<\/a><\/strong> will be active for Game 4 on Sunday, it\u2019s obvious he\u2019ll be playing through pain, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tom_orsborn\/status\/2058586444709400652\">tweets<\/a> Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. <em>\u201cI\u2019m the same as I was before the series started, but I\u2019m able to play,\u201d<\/em> said the Spurs guard, who missed the first two games of the Western finals due to a high ankle sprain. <em>\u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t feel great, but I\u2019m able to play.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li>While there are questions outside the organization about Fox\u2019s long-term fit in San Antonio due to his maximum-salary contract and the presence of rising stars <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/castlst01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-24_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stephon Castle<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harpedy01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-24_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dylan Harper<\/a><\/strong>, neither the Spurs nor Fox\u2019s camp appear concerned about the issue, writes <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7303418\/2026\/05\/24\/deaaron-fox-spurs-fighting-ankle-injury-nba-playoffs\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Sam Amick of The Athletic<\/a>. As Amick points out, this is the same organization that managed <strong>Manu Ginobili<\/strong> coming off the bench for a significant portion of his Hall-of-Fame career.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While most of the Spurs\u2018 key players have never played this deep into the postseason, veteran forward Harrison Barnes has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.hoopsrumors.com\/files\/2026\/05\/Harrison-Barnes-900x600.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}