Following the San Antonio Spurs 21st loss in their last 22 games, the team's second-leading scorer, Devin Vassell, who paced the team in Thursday's loss to the Chicago Bulls, left no doubt about what he perceives as one of his squad's biggest issues: Finding rookie Victor Wembanyama and others when they're in a good position.
“Being a young team, we've got to be able to know each other's strengths. Wemby, at 7'5, we've got to see him. When he's down there and whether he's posting up or he's sealing early, we've got to see him. If Jeremy's posting a smaller guard, we've got to know that that's a mismatch. We've got to know that we can get it to him. If I'm open at the 3-point line, if I'm open sometimes, we've just got to get it there,” Vassell said as part of extended comments following the 114-95 setback.
Devin Vassell doesn't hold back
Devin Vassell went into much more detail regarding his team's inability to recognize mismatches.
“We've got to just be able to play to each other's strengths. I feel like sometimes we might dribble one or two more times and now, instead of Wemby being open on a lob, now they crack down to him and now he's not open. If we over dribble it, now I'm not open at the three or whatever the case may be, and now instead of being a good shot, it's a contested shot and now it's a long rebound and we're trying to get back in transition and it just trickles down from there, from there, from there,” the fourth-year Spurs guard continued.
“I feel like, at the end of the day, we've just really got to understand each other. I mean, we've done played 20-something games now, I feel like we should have more…a better understanding. It's an all of us and we've just got to be better,” Vassell said to wrap up his candid assessment.
His star teammate, who was back in the lineup after missing his second NBA game, agreed.
“Of course. (we've got to recognize) Each other's strength, each other's greatness but I think our greatness is we actually have a team. We're a team. We've got some potential and we've got to be smart (for) 48 minutes,” Victor Wembanyama said.
The Spurs rookie had a record streak snapped. He'd become the youngest player in NBA history to record eight consecutive double-doubles. After missing Tuesday's 132-119 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday with a sore right ankle, Wemby was on a “minutes limitation.” That limited his output. The top overall pick in this past June scored a career-low 7 points and managed just 5 rebounds in only 22 minutes.
Underscoring a lack of Spurs' production
After Vassell's 21 points, no other Spur scored more than 14 — and that came from reserve, Zach Collins. Malaki Branam added 13 points while Keldon Johnson, who led the team with 28 on Tuesday, chipped in 11. Jeremy Sochan's 9 points meant two Spurs starters didn't score in double figures. No other player off the bench reached double figures in points with Tre Jones coming closest at 9 points.
San Antonio fell to 4-23 and to Chicago for a second time this season. The two teams will play again in mid-January in a third meeting this season because of effects from the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament.
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