Devin Vassell Western Conference Finals Game 3 Postgame Press Conference

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Um, the play when Steph got fouled the second time you stepped in there, what what was you what were you thinking at that moment?

[00:00:07]Uh, just have my teammates' back. That's my brother and you know, the first play as a basketball player, you you try to make a play, but I mean two times in a row he's about to go up for a dunk and it just looked like he pushed him.

[00:00:19]Somebody is is you know, that could be a dangerous play, so I just wanted to have my team my teammates' back.

[00:00:26]That happened in three games in a row, that sort of stuff. Has that kind of pushed you guys to this point?

[00:00:31]Yeah, I mean it's the playoffs. It's a lot of stuff that physicality, grabbing, holding all that all that just builds up. So it's a lot of I guess a little bit of animosity building up and then then I'm cool with that.

[00:00:51]And then um, the bench discrepancy was was it evident tonight? How do you how do you keep the bench help the bench the first bench to score again, to get more comfortable and to have the same level than the regular season?

[00:01:07]Uh, just watch film, be better, uh, find times to attack, get out in transition more. I think they limited our transition a lot. It's a lot of uh our second our set of people that come off the bench, they thrive in transition and thrive off certain things. So us getting out in transition and playing faster, I think it'll be a huge advantage for us.

[00:01:29]To have overall, how did you feel about the process on both ends tonight in terms of the shots that you guys got for yourselves and the shots that you forced them into? Obviously, you threw a lot of bodies at Shai and it was sort of their their other guys that that really stepped up for them.

[00:01:43]I think we just got to be better on both ends of the floor.

[00:01:46]Um, getting to our spots, being physical with our catches, getting downhill, if we see a crowd, get off the ball, um, be ready to knock down shots offensively and defensively.

[00:01:57]Um, I think we just need to be a lot more physical, a lot more just locked into the game plan. We have a great game plan and I think that we missed that missed a lot of things and didn't execute a lot of ways.

[00:02:07]Gave up some offensive rebounds, gave up some open looks to people who who we shouldn't have and I mean all that's a lot of controllables. I think that a big part of this game is that there's a lot of controllables.

[00:02:17]And we can be a lot better and we will be a lot better and we have no choice.

[00:02:23]You guys have talked a lot this season about De'Aaron and just the toughness and the trying to play through things.

[00:02:28]Yeah. You know, what was your mindset watching him kind of re-aggravate that ankle try to play through that again tonight? Uh Fox is a warrior. Um I know he's [clears throat] been dealing back with his ankle for for obviously a little bit now and for him to go out there and play >> [clears throat] >> and you can see he's not 100%.

[00:02:46]Just shows he's a warrior. He wants to he wants to win. He wants to compete and this is all that's all he wants to do.

[00:02:50]So, um credit to him.

[00:02:52]I think he played a great game with with how limited you could see that he you know that he was and he didn't complain at all.

[00:02:59]Um obviously with that play happening with Dort falling on his ankle, you know, I was concerned but he came right back out like a trooper and he and he's ready to go. So, um I know he'll be ready to go.

[00:03:08]I think we just got to be better. I think we need to be a lot more physical.

[00:03:11]I think we need to have more of a We got to We just got to be tougher mentally. I think we had a lot of times just today where we just weren't tough enough mentally and we came out with a run in the beginning of the in the game and it just kind of felt like after that we were just on our back foot instead of instead of implying our will.

[00:03:30]Um can you can you talk about that moment for a minute? You you guys did really come out with a lot of pace offensively, intensity on defense. What what happened like from the second quarter on or so?

[00:03:42]Just didn't play with that same intensity, that same I got to go back and watch film. I don't want to sit here and say stuff that that I can't really remember but I know the defensive possessions of like Steph getting a block and us just getting steals and limiting the one possession and getting rebounds.

[00:03:59]I think those were a lot of it and then that leads to us playing in transition and playing fast and we're the best team when it comes to getting out in transition and playing fast. So, if we can get more stops and and and focus on that, we'll be all right.

[00:04:12]Jeff, before the post season, you said that you feel like your game was built for big moments and you've been a big constant for this team throughout all three rounds. What's been working for you and you know and how does it feel to kind of like you said like for your teammates to be able to rely on you on offense? I mean it's my sixth season and I haven't had any playoffs so I was ready to to to play in these playoffs. I'm ready for these big moments and I am honestly, I'm grateful to be in this position but I'm not satisfied at all with how I play even though you say it's a good game, we still lost this game and and and it was a big game so go back, watch film, get better >> [snorts] >> and be ready for this next game.

[00:04:54]Last one.

[00:04:55]Jeff, I think you played like 51 minutes in that first game and a lot of the starters were kind of up there.

[00:05:02]Is there still carryover from that game fatigue-wise? How how's your body feeling? How do you think the guys are feeling? I feel great. The guys are great.

[00:05:11]There's no excuse. We got to be ready to go on Sunday.

[00:05:15]Thanks, Jeff.