Thanks to the emergence of the Spurs' young core, led by Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, and Jakob Poeltl, the San Antonio Spurs have remained a tough team to beat in spite of all the tanking talks. While they only entered Wednesday night's game against Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies with a 5-6 record, the Grizzlies know better than to take the Spurs lightly, as the Spurs have proven they could go toe-to-toe with any team on any given night.
Indeed, the Spurs gave the Grizzlies a difficult time, and they even had two opportunities to win the game at the buzzer. In the dying seconds of regulation, Johnson had a chance to put the game to rest as he made his way towards the basket. He ended up missing the floater badly, and the game went to overtime, where the Grizzlies subsequently went on a 11-2 spurt to lead by nine, 123-114, with over a minute to go in the game.
The Spurs then capitalized on late game blunders from the Grizzlies, scoring eight straight to cut the lead to one, and Ja Morant ended up missing a freebie, which set up Devin Vassell's potential heroics with the score at 125-123. Vassell curled off the baseline and received a pass from Doug McDermott, with Desmond Bane hot on his tail. Bane overplayed Vassell to his left, and the 22-year old guard took one dribble to his left to shake himself loose and then he let a three-point attempt fly at the death.
Vassell's shot was short, and the Spurs ended up falling short too in their miracle comeback attempt.




Devin Vassell misses at the buzzer and the Grizzlies (-225 ML) survive in OT pic.twitter.com/m0xafwAFXp
— NBABet (@nbabet) November 10, 2022
To that point in the game, Devin Vassell had made four out of nine triples to lead the Spurs, making him the best candidate to take the shot in that situation. The shot just didn't fall. To Vassell's credit, he remained confident in his ability to make those kinds of shots after the game.
“I keep replaying it over and over in my mind. It was a good look,” Vassell said, per Tom Orsborn.
On the season, Vassell has averaged 20.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 4.3 assists, as he and Keldon Johnson combine to make the Spurs' future a tiny bit brighter with each passing day, with or without the promise of Victor Wembanyama.