By Devon Birdsong | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2024-10-31 15:00:00
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。
马刺将迎战一支同样处于摆烂阶段的爵士队
人们常说：“比较是偷走快乐的贼”。这句话简洁明了，自信满满，仿佛蕴含着某种不容置疑的真理。你懂的，这种真理很适合配上忧郁的字体和充满戏剧性的照片背景，在社交媒体上阴阳怪气地嘲讽别人。
但问题是，比较也有很多好处。人类生活在一个相对的世界里：快乐与其他快乐时刻相对比，痛苦与其他痛苦相对比。比较是我们理解视角的一部分。无论喜欢与否，了解我们自己至少部分地与了解我们不是谁有关。
尽管目前战绩只有1胜3负，但马刺绝对不是犹他爵士。
我知道，很容易犯这个错误。帕蒂·米尔斯(Patty Mills)在爵士打球，这让人感到困惑。马刺只比爵士多赢一场，这也很让人困惑。但现实是，这两支球队正走在类似旅程的不同阶段——爵士一头扎进去寻找超级巨星，而马刺则在稳步上升，因为他们已经得到了自己的超级巨星。
如果你看上爵士一两节比赛，就能看出明显的区别。球场上弥漫着一种似曾相识的漫不经心。就像过去几个赛季的马刺一样，爵士也不能表现得太明显，但他们明显缺乏紧迫感。另一方面，马刺在经历了艰难的开局赛程后，看起来几乎太紧迫了——球队和这位身材魁梧的法国奇才文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)都对他们还没有达到预期的进步和凝聚力感到困惑。
即使你没有关注爵士，数据也体现了这种差异。
马刺的投篮命中率排名第21，助攻率排名第21，三分命中率排名第22，真实命中率排名第22，防守效率排名第12。爵士分别排名第30、27、29、30和26。
更能说明问题的是净效率的差距。虽然马刺排名第27位不太理想，但爵士以令人瞠目结舌的-17.0排名垫底，比马刺差了近10分，比倒数第二的鹈鹕差了8.5分。
看，现在你不觉得比较这两支球队很高兴吗？这确实让我对马刺赛季初的磕磕绊绊感觉好多了。
在这场比赛中，爵士没有太多动力去努力击败马刺，也没有动力让他们的最佳球员劳里·马尔卡宁(Lauri Markkanen) 复出，因为这几乎注定是一个故意摆烂的赛季。如果马尔卡宁继续缺席，我也不会感到惊讶，毕竟背伤需要谨慎对待。
如果真是这样，那么面对一支渴望胜利和节奏、默默承受着挫折的马刺队，爵士的防线可能会崩溃。
另一方面，如果摆烂的爵士真的击败了马刺，那么……我们可能得再回到“偷走快乐的贼”这个话题上。
圣安东尼奥马刺 vs 犹他爵士
2024年10月30日 | 晚上8:00 (中部时间)
观看：FanDuel Sports Network Southwest |收听：WOAI (1200 AM)
马刺伤病： 德文·瓦塞尔(Devin Vassell) - 缺席（足部），特雷·琼斯(Tre Jones) - 缺席（脚踝）
爵士伤病： 泰勒·亨德里克斯(Taylor Hendricks) - 缺席（腿部），以赛亚·科利尔(Isaiah Collier) - 出战存疑（腿筋），劳里·马尔卡宁 - 出战存疑（背部）
比赛看点：
文班亚马能否打破低迷？
对于一直关注比赛的球迷来说，很明显，文班亚马还没有找到他的节奏。在昨晚对阵雷霆的比赛中，他迎来了自己真正意义上的糟糕表现，全场只出手5次。雷霆令人窒息的防守让得分变得异常困难，整晚都没给文班喘息的机会。成为NBA超级巨星的一部分就是学习如何在对手全力以赴的情况下依然能够得分，这显然仍在进行中，尤其是在文班亚马生病的情况下。然而，文班亚马在状态不佳的夜晚之后通常会强势反弹，而爵士很可能将成为他发泄的对象。总是有很好的理由期待这位来自圣安东尼奥的二年级法国天才球员的精彩表现，他迟早会迎来一场爆发，而万圣节之夜对阵爵士的比赛可能会成为你后悔错过的一场惊魂之夜。（另外，谁也不知道赛前这位“瘦长鬼影”(the Slender Man)会穿什么服装出场，这也很有趣。）
想了解爵士球迷的看法，请访问 SLC Dunk。
PtR的比赛讨论帖将于今晚发布，供那些想边看比赛边聊天的人使用。你也可以通过 PtR的推特账号 关注比赛的实时动态。
点击查看原文：Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs Utah Jazz
Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs Utah Jazz
The Spurs take on a Jazz team on the other side of tanking
“Comparison is the thief of joy”, we’re told. It’s a saying of such economy and self-assuredness that it carries a unique quality of assumed truth. You know, the kind of truth that lends itself to an angsty typeset and melodramatic photo background perfect for passive-aggressively sniping at others on social media.
The thing is, there are a lot of benefits to comparison. Human beings bob about in an ocean of relativity; joy relative to every other moment of joy, pain relative to every other pain. Comparison is a part of what fills out our understanding of perspective. Like it or not, knowing who we are is at least partially tied to knowing who we’re not.
And in spite of a 1-3 record, the Spurs are definitely not the Utah Jazz.
It’s easy to make that mistake, I know. Patty Mills plays for the Jazz, and that’s confusing. The Spurs only have one win more than the Jazz, and that’s confusing too. But the reality is that these are two teams on different parts of a similar journey — The Jazz aimed head-first in one direction in search of a superstar, the Spurs on a slow incline upwards having already secured theirs.
The difference is apparent if you watch the stripped-down Jazz for a quarter or two. There’s a nonchalance on the court that’s incredibly familiar. Like the Spurs in seasons past, the Jazz can’t be too transparent, but the urgency is visibly lacking. The Spurs, on the other hand, in the midst of a rough opening schedule, look almost too urgent — both the team and the gargantuan French wunderkind nonplussed that they’re not as advanced and cohesive as they’d like to be yet.
The stats bear the difference out, even if you haven’t been keeping an eye on the Jazz.
The Spurs are 21st in FG%, 21st in Assist %, 22nd in 3pt%, 22nd in True Shooting%, and 12th in Defensive Rating. The Jazz are 30th, 27th, 29th, 30th, and 26th.
Even more telling is the disparity in Net Rating. And while the Spurs aren’t doing great at 27th, the Jazz are dead last at a jaw-dropping -17.0, almost a full 10 points worse than the Spurs, and -8.5 points worse than the 2nd-to-last Pelicans.
See, now aren’t you glad we compared the two teams? It certainly made me feel better about the Spurs’ bumpy start to the season.
There’s not a lot of incentive for the Jazz to play the Spurs hard in this one, nor to rush back their best player in Lauri Markkanen in what will almost certainly be a purposely lost year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Jazz hold him out in this one, since back injuries are something to cautious about to begin with.
If that ends up being the case, the floodgates might open against a quietly frustrated Spurs team hunting for a win and a rhythm.
On the other hand, if the tanking Jazz do manage to beat the Spurs, well…we might have to circle back around to that whole ‘thief of joy’ thing again.
San Antonio Spurs at Utah Jazz
October 30th, 2024 | 8:00 CT
Watch: FanDuel Sports Network Southwest |Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)
Spurs Injuries: Devin Vassell - Out (Foot), Tre Jones - Out (Ankle)
Jazz Injuries: Taylor Hendricks - Out (Leg), Isaiah Collier - Questionable (Hamstring), Lauri Markkanen - Questionable (Back)
What to watch for:
Snapping The Wembanyama Slump
For those who’ve been watching so far, it’s clear that Victor hasn’t quite found his rhythm yet. He had his first legitimately bad game against the Thunder last night, managing only 5 total attempts on an evening where the Thunder’s suffocating defense made points hard to come by, and gave Wemby hardly an inch of breathing room all night. Part of being a superstar in the NBA is learning how to get yours even when the opposition is throwing everything at you, and that’s clearly still a work in progress, especially with Wemby coming off of some form of illness. However, it’s been a pattern that Wembanyama comes out swinging after an off night, and the Jazz are likely to be on the receiving end of his frustrations. There is almost always a good reason to keep an eye out for a spectacular night from San Antonio’s Gallic sophomore, but he’s due a monstrous game sooner or later, and Halloween against the Jazz might end up being a fright night you’ll be sorry you missed out on. (Plus, there’s no telling what pregame costume the Slender Man will be showing up to the game in, and that’s always fun too)
For the Jazz’ fans’ perspective, visit SLC Dunk.
PtR’s Game thread will be up this evening for those who want to chat through the game. You can also follow along with the action through PtR’s Twitter feed.
By Devon Birdsong, via Pounding The Rock