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.
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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. He was at the team’s shootaround practice Monday morning and was on the court about 90 minutes before Game 1, testing the ankle to see what he could do.
“Trying to test it out,” Fox said after the team’s morning workout.
The test, evidently, did not go to his liking.
“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.
The Thunder, meanwhile, were getting Jalen Williams back for Game 1 after he missed six games with a hamstring issue.
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