Devin Vassell shows out in Spurs’ loss to Mavericks

The Spurs were trying to string together back-to-back wins for the first time all season, but the good guys could not muster enough to overcome the Dallas Mavericks. Playing your in-state rivals 3 times in 2 weeks seems atypical for an NBA schedule, but here we are. For the game, Devin Vassell led the team with 20 points and 2 blocks. Keldon Johnson and Dejounte Murray each had 15 points as Johnson almost got a double-double with 9 rebounds.

The young Spurs are certainly missing Jakob Poeltl, who’s still out due to COVID protocol.

Dejounte Murray got the fiesta started with this pretty move to the paint. Murray continues to lead this squad in multi-categories like points, rebounds, and assists. He’s currently averaging a career-high 18.1 points per game, but it feels like he’s just hitting his stride this season. The return of Jakob Poeltl to the team and maybe some tweaks to the lineup around Murray might unlock more potential from him for the rest of the season.

After shooting 53% from three against the Sacramento Kings the other night, the Spurs shot 43% from three against the Mavericks. The volume is trending up, but the Spurs will obviously need some consistency from deep to open up the offense and the lane for drives to the bucket.

The Spurs had shot 33, 32, and 20% from three in the previous games before Sacramento and Dallas, so they are on the right path percentage and volume-wise.

Case in point, getting looks like this and knocking them down is never a bad thing. Dougie McBuckets’s shot is as pretty as they come:

Doug McDermott has been valuable as a stretch big this season, but he’s also showing other dimensions to his game such as this sweet kiss off the glass after he snaked his way around the Mavericks’ defenders:

Here, Devin Vassell played great defense and had a block on Luka Doncic’s shot attempt —the Spurs needed like 7 more of these tonight. Maybe next time.

Mountain Drew Eubanks out here just doing what he does best, bringing energy and hyper-caffeinated highlight dunks. Tonight, Eubanks had 12 points and 8 rebounds. He has filled in admirably for Jakob Poeltl, but the Spurs will definitely need Eubanks to go back to providing valuable backup center minutes when Poeltl returns.

One: “Iceman and The Admiral” would make a great title for a buddy action movie starring George Gervin and David Robinson, driving around San Antonio looking for the bad guys who keep saying that the tacos in ATX are better than SATX.

And two: @DavidtheAdmiral, the gun show is next week at the AT&T Center, please put those away, sir.

And last but never least, the full-game highlights:

Next up, the Spurs head out to the west coast to take on the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, November 14, 2021.