By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-10-25 08:18:04
由生成式人工智能翻译,译文内容可能不准确或不完整,以原文为准。
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛上半场,圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克多·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)(右)受到达拉斯独行侠队后卫卢卡·东契奇 (Luka Doncic)(左前)的防守。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
在大多数情况下,他们都会有机会。他们本不会给自己周四那样的机会,当时他们在比赛后期落后太多,经验差距过大。当他们获得机会时,他们将确认在一场以 120-109 输掉的美航中心赛季揭幕战中本应显而易见的事实:
马刺队还远不如今年的达拉斯独行侠队。
但他们比去年的马刺队强太多了。
如果你没有看比赛,只是看了数据统计,你可能还无法相信。这是可以理解的。毕竟,在上赛季对阵达拉斯的揭幕战中,马刺队一直将比分咬得很紧,直到最后,但仍然输掉了 60 场比赛。
这种情况不会再发生了。
这种情况不会再发生,因为周四前三节的比赛细节,当时哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 突然爆发,斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 看起来像是属于这里,克里斯·保罗 (Chris Paul) 也成为了马刺队所期望的那个人。
最重要的是,60 场失利不会再发生,因为格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 在用三个字总结他最好球员的个人表现时是完全正确的。
“他很好,”波波维奇谈到文班亚马时说道。
对马刺队来说,好消息是什么?
大多数情况下,他会比这好得多。事实上,六个月后,回过头来看,意识到“他很好”的那晚竟然是文班亚马本赛季最糟糕的一场比赛,这并不令人震惊。
这次至少有几个原因。马刺队希望让这位 20 岁的球队门面人物在经历了长达 20 个月的国际和 NBA 篮球比赛(最终获得了奥运会银牌)后喘口气,因此将文班亚马的季前赛出场时间限制在了两场,而且时间都很短。
他们预测文班亚马在对阵独行侠队的揭幕战中会很累,他们是正确的。文班亚马特别指出,“体能不是借口”,因为他全场 18 投 5 中。在他得到 17 分和 9 个篮板之后,他承认自己仍在“重新适应在比赛中投篮”。
他不需要很长时间就能找到感觉。当他找到节奏后,他身边的球队将比去年更强大。
这不仅仅是因为文班亚马本赛季开始时身边有一位历史上最有成就的控球后卫,而不是一次命运多舛的实验。这很重要。但其他差异也很突出。
例如,杰里米·索汉 (Jeremy Sochan) 打得很自由,能够得分,并且还能制造混乱,这是一个很好的迹象,一年前,他在学习一个新位置的过程中信心遭受了打击。他不是控球后卫。他不必非得是控球后卫。
与此同时,朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 可能不会长期担任首发,因为他只是在德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 从脚部手术中恢复的几周内担任这个职位。但尚帕尼一直在得分——他投进了 4 个三分球,最终追平了索汉的 18 分——而这是去年的马刺队已经忘记的技能。
然后是巴恩斯和保罗,他们被招募进队很大程度上是为了给联盟中最年轻的球队一些老将的经验,但他们在周四表明,他们不仅仅是导师。
在目睹了过去几周在无关紧要的比赛中,很多球都弹筐而出,并坚称自己并不担心之后,巴恩斯在本赛季的第一场比赛中,他的前五次出手全部命中。当一位三十多岁的球员在终结比赛时,另一位三十多岁的球员在开始比赛,保罗送出了上赛季马刺队梦寐以求的传球,最终贡献了 8 次助攻。
是的,这些马刺队的失误太多了(19 次,而独行侠队只有 9 次)。是的,他们在篮板上被对手打败了,让独行侠队抢到了 17 个进攻篮板。是的,他们在第四节初就让比赛失去了悬念,甚至没有机会证明他们为关键时刻做好了更充分的准备。
尽管如此,还是有一些片段——比如保罗在第三节将比分追至只差 2 分的过程中,一边稳住队友,一边加快节奏——代表着球队取得了真正的进步,并带来了真正的希望。
诚然,这只是昙花一现。
“但说实话,我对这些昙花一现感到非常兴奋,”保罗说道。
保罗知道。他知道,总有一些夜晚,这些昙花一现会变成更持久的东西。总有一些夜晚,他能够在第四节的最后几分钟里让马刺队安定下来,就像他在周四第三节最后几分钟所做的那样。
总有很多夜晚,文班亚马的表现会比“还好”要好得多,总有很多夜晚,马刺队的对手不会是刚刚打完 NBA 总决赛的球队,总有很多夜晚,马刺队会给自己机会。
当他们真的有机会的时候呢?
下一步就是好好利用这些机会。
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛上半场,圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克多·文班亚马(右)正准备进攻达拉斯独行侠队的德里克·莱弗利二世 (Dereck Lively II)(左)。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在达拉斯美航中心举行的比赛上半场,达拉斯独行侠队的卢卡·东契奇 (Luka Doncic)(77 号)从圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克多·文班亚马(1 号)手中抢走了球,而独行侠队的克莱·汤普森 (Klay Thompson)(31 号)正在防守。
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,达拉斯独行侠队的德里克·莱弗利二世(2 号)抢到篮板球,而圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克多·文班亚马(1 号)和前锋哈里森·巴恩斯(右)也在争抢篮板球。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,达拉斯独行侠队的克莱·汤普森(左二)和昆廷·格莱姆斯 (Quentin Grimes)(右)迫使圣安东尼奥马刺队的杰里米·索汉(右二)出现失误。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,达拉斯独行侠队的凯里·欧文 (Kyrie Irving)(11 号)带球突破圣安东尼奥马刺队的凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson)(0 号)、朱利安·尚帕尼(30 号)和前锋扎克·柯林斯 (Zach Collins)(23 号)的防守。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,达拉斯独行侠队后卫杰登·哈迪 (Jaden Hardy)(下)带球突破圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋扎克·柯林斯(上)的防守。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,达拉斯独行侠队的卢卡·东契奇(左前)在圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克多·文班亚马的防守下,完成了一次不看人传球。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,达拉斯独行侠队后卫克莱·汤普森(31 号)在上篮,而圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋朱利安·尚帕尼(30 号)正在防守。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,达拉斯独行侠队的卢卡·东契奇(77 号)在圣安东尼奥马刺队的杰里米·索汉(10 号)的防守下跳投。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛上半场,圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(中右)在达拉斯独行侠队前锋马克西·克莱贝尔 (Maxi Kleber)(中左)的防守下跳投。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛下半场,圣安东尼奥马刺队的克里斯·保罗(3 号)与达拉斯独行侠队的杰登·哈迪(1 号)相撞。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯举行的 NBA 篮球比赛上半场,圣安东尼奥马刺队的克里斯·保罗(3 号)受到达拉斯独行侠队前锋马克西·克莱贝尔(左)的防守。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯对阵达拉斯独行侠队的 NBA 篮球比赛上半场,圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克多·文班亚马(前景)带球突破上篮。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
2024 年 10 月 24 日星期四,在德克萨斯州达拉斯对阵圣安东尼奥马刺队的 NBA 篮球比赛上半场,达拉斯独行侠队后卫卢卡·东契奇正在布置战术。(美联社照片/Albert Pena)
点击查看原文:Despite loss to Dallas Mavs, San Antonio Spurs better than last year
Despite loss to Dallas Mavs, San Antonio Spurs better than last year
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, right, is defended by Dallas Mavericks’ guard Luka Doncic, front left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
More often than not on those nights, they’ll have a chance. They’ll have a chance they didn’t give themselves Thursday, when a late deficit got out of hand and an experience gap proved too wide. And when they get that chance, they will confirm something that should have been evident in a season-opening 120-109 loss at American Airlines Center:
The Spurs aren’t nearly as good as this year’s Dallas Mavericks.
But they’re a heck of a lot better than last year’s Spurs.
If you skipped the game and just looked at the stat sheet, you’re probably not convinced yet. That’s understandable. After all, in last year’s season opener against Dallas, the Spurs kept the score closer, all the way to the end, and still went on to lose 60 games.
That won’t happen again.
It won’t happen again because of the details from the first three quarters Thursday, when Harrison Barnes flipped a switch, and when Stephon Castle looked like he belonged, and when Chris Paul became exactly who the Spurs expected him to be.
Most of all, 60 losses won’t happen again because Gregg Popovich was exactly right when he gave a three-word summary of his best player’s individual performance.
“He was fine,” Popovich said of Wembanyama.
The good news for the Spurs?
Most nights, he’ll be much, much better than that. In fact, six months from now, it won’t be a shock to look back and realize that the night “he was fine” turned out to be Wembanyama’s worst game of the season.
There were at least reasons for it this time. Wanting to give their 20-year-old face of the franchise a chance to catch his breath after a taxing 20-month stretch of international and NBA basketball culminating in an Olympic silver medal, the Spurs limited Wembanyama to just two abbreviated game appearances this preseason.
They predicted he’d be tired in the opener against the Mavericks, and they were right. Wembanyama took care to note that “the conditioning is not an excuse” for shooting 5-for-18 from the field, but conceded after his 17-point, 9-rebound night that he still is “getting used again to taking shots in a game.”
It won’t take him long. And when he finds his rhythm, he’ll be surrounded by a team much better equipped to help him than the one that surrounded him last year.
It’s not just that Wembanyama is starting this season with one of the most accomplished point guards in the history of the sport, instead of with an ill-fated experiment. That’s huge. But other differences stick out, too.
Jeremy Sochan, for instance, is playing free and making shots and causing general mayhem again, which is a great sign a year after his confidence took a nosedive trying to learn a new position on the fly. He’s no point guard. He doesn’t need to be one.
Julian Champagnie, meanwhile, probably won’t be a starter for long, as he’s just holding the job down for a few weeks while Devin Vassell ramps up his return from foot surgery. But Champagnie keeps making shots – hitting four 3-pointers on his way to matching Sochan’s 18 points – and that’s a skill last year’s Spurs learned not to take for granted.
Then there are Barnes and Paul, who were recruited in large part to give the league’s youngest team some adults in the roster, but who showed Thursday they’re not mere mentors.
After watching a bunch of shots rattle off the rim in recent weeks in games that didn’t matter and insisting he wasn’t worried, Barnes swished his first five attempts of the regular season. And while one thirtysomething was finishing plays, another was starting them, with Paul dishing out the kind of passes last season’s Spurs craved on his way to eight assists.
Yes, these Spurs turned the ball over way too often (19 times, compared to Dallas’ nine). Yes, they got pummeled on the glass, yielding 17 Mavericks offensive rebounds. And yes, they let the game get out of hand early in the fourth quarter, before they even got the opportunity to show they’re better prepared for crunch time.
Still, there were stretches – like when Paul calmed everyone down while pushing the pace on a third-quarter run that narrowed a 14-point deficit to two – that represented real steps forward, and provided genuine hope.
Granted, they were only spurts.
“But I’m honestly so excited,” Paul said, “about the spurts.”
Paul knows. He knows there will be nights when the spurts turn into something longer. There will be nights when he will be able to settle the Spurs in the closing minutes of a fourth quarter the way he did Thursday in the closing minutes of the third.
There will be lots of nights when Wembanyama will be more than fine, and lots of nights when the Spurs will play an opponent not coming off a trip to the NBA Finals, and lots of nights when the Spurs will give themselves chances.
And when they do?
The next step will be doing something with them.
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, right, drives against Dallas Mavericks’ Dereck Lively II, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
The Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic (77) takes the ball away from the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama (1) as the Mavs’ Klay Thompson (31) defends during the first half at American Airlines Center on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas.
Dallas Mavericks’ Dereck Lively II (2) pulls down a rebound as San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama (1) and forward Harrison Barnes, right, reach for the ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
Dallas Mavericks’ Klay Thompson, second from left, and Dallas Mavericks’ Quentin Grimes, right, force a turnover against San Antonio Spurs’ Jeremy Sochan, second from right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
Dallas Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving (11) drives to the basket past San Antonio Spurs’ Keldon Johnson (0), Julian Champagnie (30) and forward Zach Collins (23) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
Dallas Mavericks guard Jaden Hardy, bottom, drives against San Antonio Spurs forward Zach Collins, top, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic , front left, makes a no-look pass behind him through San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama’s arms during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
Dallas Mavericks’ guard Klay Thompson (31) goes for a layup as he is guarded by San Antonio Spurs’ forward Julian Champagnie (30) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic (77) shoots a jump shot as he is guarded by San Antonio Spurs’ Jeremy Sochan (10) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, center right, is defended by Dallas Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber, center left, as he shoots a jump shot during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
San Antonio Spurs’ Chris Paul (3) collides with Dallas Mavericks’ Jaden Hardy (1) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
San Antonio Spurs’ Chris Paul (3) is defended by Dallas Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
San Antonio Spurs’ center Victor Wembanyama, foreground, drives to the basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
Dallas Mavericks’ guard Luka Doncic calls a play during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News