By Charlie Thaddeus | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2024-12-10 01:36:03
由生成式 AI 翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
圣安东尼奥的伤兵们惊险取胜
这场比赛从一开始就感觉像是被诅咒了一样。球员们一个接一个地前往更衣室，马刺的进攻毫无起色，比赛感觉很快就脱离了掌控。情况很糟糕，我真想直接宣布比赛结束，让大家回家，以免球场中央突然塌陷出一个巨坑。
伤病的接踵而至简直如同滑稽剧（重点强调“如同”）。各种各样的不幸接连发生：不经意的碰撞导致手臂麻木、无对抗的跑动导致严重跛行，甚至还有一些可怕的摔倒。然后，很显然， 文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) 受伤的阴霾笼罩着一切。你看，每次维克多出现在伤病报告上，你都有点不敢细看，以免陷入恐慌。缺席一场比赛？他们可能只是让他休息。两场比赛？好吧，你知道，我们必须谨慎。在他复出后的第一场比赛中，打了大概两分钟就捂着背部离开，就像我从沙发上起身太快后的样子？这还不算危机，但仪表盘上的警告灯已经正式亮起。
我很高兴他回到了比赛。看他打球很有趣，我总是宁愿看他打球也不愿看不到他。不过，我几乎希望他没有回来，因为不知什么原因，我整晚都难以摆脱这种不安的感觉。就像我看到了鬼魂一样。也许只是因为他第一节步履蹒跚地走进更衣室， starkly提醒了我这个梦想是多么脆弱。你想要像他这样的球员在你的球队名单上，一旦你拥有了他，你就希望你的球队围绕他来建队。你想要赌上一切，你想要围绕着一个落在你身上的天赋异禀的球员，最大限度地利用好时光。马刺做得一切都很好，维克多似乎是联盟中最稳妥的选择，然而……即使是“稳妥的选择”也不能保证任何事情。
我知道我不应该关注这些。这是一场有趣的胜利，维克多回到赛场后看起来状态不错，一切都很好。只是需要看看对面人员极度短缺的新奥尔良鹈鹕，就能想起当你用状元签选中一个“稳妥的”球队救世主时，情况会变得多么糟糕。我记得有一晚，我看到 锡安·威廉姆森(Zion Williamson) 在新秀赛季对阵马刺时狂砍三分，并预言他和鹈鹕将拥有最光明的未来。五年过去，一次全明星之旅后，现在却有严肃的讨论说鹈鹕需要推倒重来。
那太……极端了。由于种种原因，马刺不是鹈鹕， 文班 不是锡安。我只是在这里对着虚空喊出模糊的恐惧，因为我本该度过一个愉快的夜晚观看马刺比赛，却担心一些还没有发生且我无法控制的事情。别学我。如果我如此担心维克多最终会受伤，我或许应该花更多时间真正享受他在场上的时间，而不是向胜利资本球馆邮寄大量的泡沫包装纸。
马刺走在正确的道路上，一切都会好起来的。我非常需要放松一下。
要点:
- 克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul) 的事情非常酷。也许我之前没有注意到，但我不知道这即将发生，在那一刻意识到这随时可能发生，真是太有趣了。12,092次助攻，真是难以想象他在这个级别打了多久。在暂停期间，当他忙着对人们大喊大叫时，观众却试图为他起立鼓掌，这也非常符合他的个性。祝贺克里斯。
- 索汉(Jeremy Sochan) 的回归让我非常高兴。真的，到目前为止，本赛季唯一真正的遗憾就是他火热的状态被伤病打断了。如果你是那种看他打球却仍然不为所动的人，因为他没有完全符合你对他的某些模糊定义，那么，好吧，我想礼貌地邀请你参加我今天下午举办的“哪儿凉快哪儿待着去”派对。他无所不能，他适应任何位置。他打球时充满快乐和激情，我希望每个NBA球员都能以此为目标。没有哪个版本的马刺没有他会更好。
- 我希望在接下来的十年里能看到一百万个这样的版本。
51区 pic.twitter.com/glKpIGAcIg
— 圣安东尼奥马刺 (@ spurs) 2024年12月9日
- 可能不会再有第二个十年让保罗在球队名单上了，但只要他还在这里，我也希望看到一百万个这样的版本。
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— 圣安东尼奥马刺 (@ spurs) 2024年12月9日
赛后新闻发布会
- 你，呃，在一篇胜利的赛后文章里把大家都搞得很沮丧。
- 是的，我对此并不感到骄傲。不过，告诉你一些幕后故事。有时候，为了赶进度，你会在比赛结束前就开始写这些东西，就像第一节的比赛那样，我基本上已经把这篇文章的框架定好了。马刺陷入了伤病危机。他们让维克多仓促复出。如果他伤得很重怎么办？如果他总是受伤怎么办？如果他的背部问题无法解决怎么办？等等，等等。当他真正回到比赛中，马刺表现得还不错，而且他们真的赢了的时候，我这篇文章已经写了一半了？所以，你知道，我尽力了。试图挽救一下。
- 我想，你必须做你必须做的事情。
- 大多数时候，你对比赛有很好的感觉，并且可以在比赛结束前预见到它的走向。而这场比赛？好吧，我有点失误了。不过，我认为我的观点仍然成立。维克多受伤的想法把我吓坏了，如果你是马刺球迷，却并不担心这一点，那么你就是在撒谎。
- 让大家沮丧，还说他们是骗子。你今晚的表现真是太棒了。
- 事情就是这样。
点击查看原文：What We Learned from the Spurs win over the Pelicans
What We Learned from the Spurs win over the Pelicans
San Antonio’s walking wounded escape with a win
It almost felt like this game was cursed right from the jump. Players were heading to the locker room left and right, the Spurs couldn’t get anything going, and the game felt like it was quickly slipping out of everyone’s reach. It was bad. I wanted to call it and send everyone home before a giant tunnel caved in at mid-court.
The parade of injuries was truly almost comical (heavy emphasis on “almost”). You had every type of misfortune thrown your way: innocuous run-ins leading to dead-arm shoulders, non-contact steps leading directly to heavy limps, and even some scary falls slipped in for good measure. Then, obviously, there was the specter of a Wembanyama injury crisis hovering over everything. Look, every time Victor is on the injury report, you sort of have to not look too closely so panic doesn’t set in. Missing one game? They’re probably just resting him. Two games? Well, you know, we must be cautious. Leaving his first game back after, like, two minutes and holding his back the way I do after getting up from the couch too quickly? It’s not exactly a crisis, but the warning light on the dashboard has officially come on.
I’m glad he came back into the game. It was fun to watch him ball out, and I’d always rather be watching him than not. I almost wish he hadn’t, though, because for some reason I found it hard to shake this air of uneasiness about the situation all night. It was like I had seen a ghost or something. Maybe it’s just that watching him shuffle into the locker room in the first quarter was a stark reminder of how fragile the dream really is. You want a guy like him on your roster, and once you have him, you want your franchise to build around him. You want the chips on the table, and you want the plan centered on maximizing the good times you get from a generational talent landing in your lap. The Spurs are doing everything right, and Victor seems to be as sure a thing as you can get in this league, and yet… even a “sure thing” isn’t a guarantee of anything at all.
I know I shouldn’t be focusing on this. It was a fun win, Victor looked fine once he returned to the action, and everything is cool. It’s just that one need look no further than the extremely depleted New Orleans Pelicans across the way for a reminder of how bad this can go when you draft a “sure thing” franchise savior with the number one overall pick. I remember watching Zion Williamson raining threes all over the Spurs as a rookie one night and penciling him and the Pels in for the brightest of futures. Five years and one All-Star appearance later, there’s serious talk about the Pelicans needing to shut everything down and rebuild again.
That’s… extreme. For, like, one million reasons, the Spurs are not the Pelicans, and Victor Wembanyama is not Zion Williamson. I’m just out here shouting ambiguous fears into the void because I spent what should have been a fun night watching the Spurs worrying about something that hasn’t happened and that I have no control over. Don’t be like me. If I’m so worried about Victor eventually getting hurt, I should probably spend more time actually enjoying his time on the court instead of mailing giant shipments of bubble wrap to the Victory Capital Performance Center.
The Spurs are on the right track and everything is going to be fine. I very much need to relax.
Takeaways:
- The Chris Paul thing was very cool. Maybe I hadn’t been paying attention, but I had no idea this was imminent, and it was fun to realize, in the moment, that it could happen at any second. 12,092 is so many assists. It’s truly hard to fathom how long he’s been doing his thing at this level. The fact that the crowd was trying to give him a standing ovation during the timeout while he was busy yelling at people feels pretty on-brand for our guy as well. Congrats to Chris.
- Jeremy Sochan being back in the mix makes me extremely happy. Truly, the only real bummer of the season so far has been his hot start getting curtailed by injury. If you’re the type of person who watches him play and remains unimpressed because it doesn’t fit neatly into some obscure definition of what you want him to be, then, well, I’d like to politely invite you to attend the “Kick Rocks” party I’m throwing later this afternoon. He does everything. He fits everywhere. He plays with a level of joy and excitement that I wish every NBA player would aspire to. There’s no version of the Spurs that’s better without him on it.
- I would like to see a million more versions of this over the next decade, please.
AREA 51 pic.twitter.com/glKpIGAcIg
— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) December 9, 2024
- Probably not going to have another decade with CP3 on the roster, but while he’s here, would also take about a million more versions of this play please.
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— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) December 9, 2024
WWL Post Game Press Conference
- You, uh, kinda spent a whole victory post bumming everyone out.
- Yea, and I’m not proud of that. Here’s the thing though, I’ll give you a little peek behind the curtain. Sometimes you start writing these things before the game ends just to get ahead of schedule and, like, the way the first quarter was going I just basically had this thing mapped out already. The Spurs were in an injury crisis. They rushed Victor back. What if he’s hurt bad? What if he’s always hurt? What if his back is something that just can’t be fixed? etc, etc. I was like, halfway home with this column by the time he actually came back into the game and then the Spurs were fine and they actually just went ahead and won? So , you know, I did the best I could. Tried to salvage the work.
- You have to do what you have to do, I guess.
- Most of the time you have a pretty good feel for the game and can kind of see where it’s going before it gets there. With this one? Well. I was a little off. I think I still stand by the sentiment though. The idea of Victor getting hurt scares the bejeezus out of me and if you are a Spurs fan who isn’t worried about that then you are a liar.
- Bumming people out and calling them liars. Banner night from you.
- It is what it is.
By Charlie Thaddeus, via Pounding The Rock