Spurs’ Devin Vassell Channeled Blake Griffin to Convert Rare Alley-Oop 3-Pointer in Game 2 Win

The Spurs beat the Timberwolves soundly on Wednesday night, 133–95, and tied their second round series in the process. All five San Antonio starters scored in double-figures, led by Stephon Castle's 21. Devin Vassell finished with 10 points thanks in no small part to a unique basket in the second quarter when he converted a very rare three-point alley-oop.

Julian Champagnie got the ball from Victor Wembanyama with the shot clock winding down, but lost it on the way up. Champagnie recovered the ball and kicked it out to Vassell in the corner. Without time to get off a proper jumper, Vassell began his shooting motion without the ball. Champagnie proceeded to hit him perfectly and Vassell caught the ball and shot it in one motion right before the shot clock ran out.

Or, in layman's terms, he hit an alley-oop three.

No-dip 3 in the air 😭🔥

Devin Vassell is cold for this 🥶 pic.twitter.com/7umscxcghQ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 7, 2026

Yes, an alley-oop three-pointer. While that is undeniably cool and sounds like something we've never seen before, t's not actually the first time someone has done it in the NBA.

Just last year Derrick White hit an alley-oop three-pointer against the Pistons in a regular season game.

ALLEY-OOP 3??

Derrick White catches it mid-air and drills the 3 😲 pic.twitter.com/mBJbiUOZwr
— NBA (@NBA) February 27, 2025

White hit five three-pointers that night, but the Celtics lost by 20, which is surprising because you would think when alley-oop three-pointers are falling a team is firing on all cylinders, but it actually just might mean they couldn't get a quality shot and had to resort to drastic measures as the shot clock was winding down.

And White wasn't the first guy to pull it off. If you travel back a full decade you'll find a Blake Griffin highlight from Nov. 24, 2015 where he also hit an alley-oop three with the shot clock winding down.

This one was very rare. This was during the Lob City era in Los Angeles and the fact that Griffin hit a three off an alley-oop was fitting. At the time he was primarily a dunker and this was just the 39th three-pointer of his career at the time. As noted during every commercial break of every postseason game this year, he only hit 29 total in the postseason during his career.

Griffin didn't shoot 100 three-pointers in a season until the next year and then he really started letting them fly when he got to the Pistons. Amazingly, he shot 522 during the ’18–19 season, which remains the 211th highest total for a single season in NBA history. Considering he only shot 455 during eight seasons with the Clippers, that's probably worth staring at for a minute.

Vassell, in his sixth season, has never attempted that many three-pointers in a single season. However, of the three players who have made alley-oop three-pointers, he has the highest career three-point percentage. And he's already shot more in his career than Griffin did in less than half the games.

Of course, the only stat that really matters is that all three of those guys are 100% from three on alley-oops. Certainly other players have tried it, but those are the only three who return Google search results which makes them the best to ever jump up behind the three-point line, catch the ball and put it in the basket.

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