Spurs' Devin Vassell drops defiant take on ugly losing streak
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The San Antonio Spurs are in France for a pair of games overseas as the NBA continuously looks to expand basketball globally. But among the pomp and circumstance that comes with superstar Victor Wembanyama’s homecoming — which included a court dedication from the Spurs superstar. The Spurs go to Paris on a three-game losing streak. It’s a reality not lost on the Silver and Black’s second-leading scorer Devin Vassell.
‘It’s a business (trip),” Vassell said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of stuff going on and there’s a lot of new moving pieces, but the reason we’re going out there is to play basketball.”
“That’s the main thing, so we’ve got to keep the main thing the main thing,” the fifth-year Spur continued.
It’s far from the only blunt statement Vassell shared following the team’s most recent game, a 128-107 loss at the Miami Heat.
Devin Vassell adamant Spurs are beating themselves
The loss in South Florida came after back-to-back double-digit outcomes at home to the Memphis Grizzlies. Though the Spurs led the first of those match-ups with the Grizzlies in the fourth quarter and the second contest got away from them late in the third quarter, San Antonio followed a 14-point loss with a 28-point difference two nights later.
“We’ve been getting killed in transition. We’ve been getting killed off of straight line drives, causing us to help, causing them to have open threes,” Vassell continued. “I think that’s it, between those two things in the past couple of games, I felt like those have been the main things.”
Though the Spurs have lost six of their last seven games, dating back to January 4, Vassell maintains that the team’s biggest problem during that stretch has been the Spurs.
“I don’t think we’re losing and it’s like the teams are better than us or nothing like that,”
“I think the thing that we can look forward to is that they’re all controllable,” the Florida State Seminole added.
French fans chant "Go Spurs Go" and #VictorWembanyama signs autographs.
Small part of the sights and sounds from the #Spurs first day in Paris.#Wemby and the Spurs will face the Pacers in France on Thursday and Saturday.#GoSpursGo#PorVidapic.twitter.com/NNeP3wgnwj
— Hector Ledesma (@HectorLedesmaTV) January 21, 2025
In continuing to discuss what’s been ailing his team, Vassell focused on one side of the ball. In each of their last six losses, the Spurs have given up more than the 113 points per game their defense averages this season. The 128 points they allowed in Miami fall in line with their last four losses in which they’ve given up more than 120.
“We’ve got to contain the dribble, we’ve got to be better in transition and those are two things that’ll help us out. If you guard your yard, if you play one on one, you don’t have to help. If you don’t have to help, then you don’t have that kick out three,” Vassell shared.
It’s no surprise that the Spurs would emphasize defense. This time the plea is coming from one of their top scorers.
“We have to take more pride in guarding the ball one on one,” Vassell continued. “I think that’ll help us out a lot. We know we play Indiana, we know they like to get up and down so we know that we’ve got to get back in transition.”
The Silver and Black face the Pacers in Paris on Thursday and then again on Saturday.
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