Vassell’s 1 of 5 from deep leaves Spurs needing a Game 6 answer

Devin vassell went 1 of 5 on open and wide-open 3-pointers in Game 5, and the Spurs need that shot to come back if they want to stay alive. San Antonio is facing elimination for the first time in the postseason and goes into Game 6 needing a cleaner perimeter night to push the series to a seventh game.

Vassell and the Spurs perimeter

Vassell had hit 50 percent of those same open and wide-open 3-pointers in the first four games of the series. Game 5 broke that rhythm. The guards around him were part of the problem too, with De'Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper also turning in rough performances.

The Spurs do not need a new formula so much as a sharper version of the one that worked earlier in the series. Vassell has to knock down jump shots to stretch the defense, and his Game 5 line made that job harder as Oklahoma City kept the pressure on the arc.

Wembanyama’s heavy load

Victor Wembanyama still found ways to draw contact, taking 12 free throws in Game 5, but the rest of his line was uneven. He went 4 of 15 from the field and missed all five of his 3-point attempts, leaving San Antonio without enough clean scoring from its centerpiece.

That scoring burden sits in the middle of a bigger problem. The Spurs were a surprise team with 62 wins and a conference finals berth with a real shot at making the NBA Finals, but now they are one loss from ending that run. They also had not faced a loss away from ending their season at any point in the first two rounds.

Game 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET

Game 6 is set for 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. The Spurs need two straight wins to continue their season, and the path starts with making the shots that disappeared in Game 5. Vassell’s perimeter work is central to that climb, because the series will not move back to Game 7 unless San Antonio gets that spacing back in place.