De’Aaron Fox drops a truth bomb on the high stakes after the All-Star break

The San Antonio Spurs start the matchup after the All-Star break with the second-best record in the NBA Western Conference standings. As one of the few veterans in the team’s rotation, De’Aaron Fox there is no doubt about the path to the playoffs for the silver and black.

“Every game counts a little bit more, especially when you talk about the seeding and how close the West is. It’s going to be fun.”

“Every game counts a little bit more, especially when you talk about the fair and how close the West is. It’s going to be fun”⬇

– De’Aaron Fox w/#Spurs set for part of the year after the All-Star break

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— Hector Ledesma (@HectorLedesmaTV) February 18, 2026

Getting off his second career All-Star gameFox is one of the few Spurs to qualify for the NBA playoffs before.

“It’s definitely going to be an adjustment. Even with that, they say they don’t, but the games are played a little bit differently, especially as you get closer to the playoffs,” Fox said. “It’s going to be an adjustment. I think our coaching staff has put us in a great position to not let that kind of ruin the way we play because we want to be that physical team and continue to play fast and play through the whistles.”

De’Aaron Fox likes the way the Spurs participated in All-Star weekend

The Spurs resume play after the break on their longest winning streak of the season. Although they are credited with winning eight straight games in December, that stretch includes a loss to the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup Finals, which does not count toward the participating teams’ record. That setback in New York fell between three- and five-game winning streaks.

The Spurs have won their last six before the league tradition of mid-February.

“That was the part that we felt was really important because we were able to go into the All-Star break with some momentum and we did a good job of that,” Fox said.

“We played eight games,” added the nine-year veteran. “We talked about an eight-game season. We went 7-1 the last eight games, so we’re going into the break with that kind of momentum, it’s the first time a lot of our guys have played meaningful basketball after the break. So all these games mean a little bit more.”

Fox and former Sacramento Kings teammate Harrison Barnes, who won a championship with the Golden State Warriors and is now in his 14th NBA season, are the team’s only rotation players with more than six seasons in the league.

“The mental part of the game has to be there because everybody goes through it physically. But if you can continue to focus on the game and stay focused for such a long season, it helps you get through more than being physically ready for it,” Fox said.

At 38-16The Spurs are closer to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder at the top of the standings than the Denver Nuggets, who are third in the West. That is the unmistakable reality of the situation before Fox and the Spurs.

“For us, I think the guys are ready and I think the guys are excited about it, for sure.”