EMIRATES NBA CUP

December 13, 2025

Devin Vassell

San Antonio Spurs

Semifinal Postgame

San Antonio Spurs 111, Oklahoma City Thunder 109

Q. What were your thoughts on the strategy of Mitch keeping Wemby on the bench and then backloading it for the fourth quarter? He took kind of a beating on social media, but he had the last laugh.

DEVIN VASSELL: Yeah, we keep everything in-house and we don't care what the outside noise, what everybody else thinks. I think it was perfect. I know Vic wanted to get out there and play more and do that, but we're focused on his long term and whatever that is.

So they had the perfect plan, I know they talked about it over and over and over again and we executed it, and as soon as Vic came in he had the impact that we needed.

Q. You guys won a lot with Vic sidelined as well. What did you guys learn about yourselves in terms of how you guys wanted to figure out things offensively and defensively, especially without him?

DEVIN VASSELL: Just playing together. I think out of all those games a bunch of people were able to step up, HB, me, Fox, Dylan, KJ -- we can go down the line, everybody stepped up. So we have a really, really talented roster and a deep roster and we play for each other and we don't care who gets the success as long as we're winning that's all that matters.

Q. We've now seen between the Lakers game going into this game really great chemistry from you guys particularly from the guard rotation, the Slash Brothers, which I think two people were involved, and now it's spread out, De'Aaron, you, of course Dylan Harper as well, Stephon. What is it that you guys, in practice, what is it that you guys do to really challenge each other, one, to push the speed, to make sure that you're battling out in the perimeter to get into the paint, what does it look like?

DEVIN VASSELL: We actually haven't even practiced all together as a team, so it's crazy that you said that. We kind of just got out there and we all play to each other's strengths. With everybody getting downhill, with Fox and Harp and Steph, they all get downhill and it opens up for me, Ju [Julian], and HB to get, you know, to knock down threes. We all just play for each other, and we all just kind of, it's a balance. So we all just play for each other, that's all I can say. They're getting downhill and they're getting us open shots. And if they try and collapse we're knocking it down. If they don't collapse it's one-on-one and that's easy for them.

Q. What was the most gratifying part about tonight and this victory?

DEVIN VASSELL: We did it together as a team, it wasn't just one person, we all played together as a team. I think that we didn't have the start that we wanted, we started off 0-10 from the three-point line and all this stuff, but we settled in and we started getting some stops. And we hang our hat on the defensive end, and I think we showed that we can guard.

Q. You yourself had a big game tonight. It felt like every time that some momentum was trying to start up from them, you came down and hit a big shot, and you were a big part down the stretch. Talk to us about your game tonight and just how it felt to be locked in the way you were?

DEVIN VASSELL: Credit my teammates, truthfully. Ju found me, HB found me, a lot of them found me. And just reps. Over the summer I was just staying in the game, staying consistent. And at the end of the day, you're going to get these looks, and you get these looks you got to knock them down. So I was just excited to get the opportunity to have these type of looks. I started off 0-3, 0-4, whatever, but that does not matter. Jimmy, my shooting coach, and everybody else is always staying on me about, just, it doesn't matter about the last shot, just keep shooting. So, I'm going to keep doing that.

Q. Going back to the original question, clearly Mitch did the math right on the minutes and it showed at the end. How much confidence, I mean, this is a guy who has the unenviable job of following Pop, the guy with the most wins ever. How much confidence do you guys have that when he pushes a button it's going to be the right button?

DEVIN VASSELL: I trust in Mitch a hundred percent. Mitch was my player development coach when I first got here, so I think me and him have an even better connection than the outside sees. But we all trust him. He's the brains of all of this. He helps us with everything. And the schemes -- and all the assistant coaches help with the schemes and everything else. But it was perfect, and we're just going to keep relying on him. He's our head coach and we trust in him.