By Jeje Gomez | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-01-02 00:44:44
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。
对于马刺来说，这是一场轻松的胜利，这正是他们在艰苦的客场之旅后所需要的。
新年伊始是反思现状的最佳时机，可以肯定地说，马刺正处于一个甜蜜的境地。需要注意的是，这并非指战绩方面，他们目前排名第九，而且接下来的赛程非常艰巨。但与过去几年相比，现在的一切都感觉更有意义，不知何故也更轻松。
如今，一切似乎都很重要，即使在那些本不该提供太多启示的比赛中也是如此。文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)在对阵疲惫的快船——背靠背的第二场比赛——时在三分线内大杀四方可能意义不大，但也可能预示着这位大个子将迎来更多统治级的表现。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)在下半场替补受伤的杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)上场，得分、造犯规、在防守端成为一害，而他最近的表现几乎无法上场，这对于相信他拥有明星潜力的球迷来说是一种慰藉。马刺在第三节扩大领先优势展现了球队的成熟，表明他们不会轻视任何对手。即使在赛场外，每当有关于球队的交易传闻，或者有顶级新秀表示他想加盟圣安东尼奥时，都显得意义非凡。
糟糕或有疑问的事情确实存在并引起担忧，但大多数情况下都笼罩着乐观的气氛。在轻松战胜快船之前的客场三连败让人感到沉重，因为球队看起来已经足够好，可以在客场战胜像76人、尼克斯和森林狼这样的对手。索汉的腰伤令人沮丧，因为他状态正佳，并且正在与首发阵容培养默契，但如果他缺席比赛，卡斯尔可能会获得更多与首发一起出场的机会，并获得更多宝贵的经验。替补中锋表现不佳？这是一个考察小个阵容以及关注交易市场的机会，但无需承担任何巨大的风险。目前看来，没有什么真正令人担忧或缺乏一线希望的事情。
不可避免的是，事情在某个时候会发生改变。也许最快在下个赛季，期望值就会更高，而期望值是快乐的窃贼。偶尔的大胜或挣扎球员偶尔的出色表现会受到赞扬，但所有的目光都将集中在战绩上，因为目标会更高，这也是理所当然的。
就目前而言，胜利是快乐的，失败是学习的机会。没有像GDP时代那样必须赢得总冠军的压力，也没有像之后几年那样拼命保持竞争力的绝望。球迷们可以放松身心，静观其变，享受这可能是马刺在一段时间内最后一个无压力的赛季。
主要收获
- 凭借文班的臂展和外线投射能力，马刺正在用一种极其简单但有效的界外球战术折磨对手。每次他们需要从底线发球时，第一个选择就是将球高吊给文班，他可以直接扣篮或补篮。对手决定在文班身上增加一名防守球员，从而让发球人（通常是克里斯·保罗）处于空位。所以文班现在会移动到角落，接球并出手投篮。对阵快船的比赛中，他错失了空接扣篮，但命中了底角三分。没有必要深入研究这些小细节来解释为什么文班是一个“作弊代码”——看看他的数据就足够了——但注意到这些小细节总是很有趣的。
- 如果索汉因腰伤缺席比赛，看看卡斯尔——他在下半场替补索汉首发——是否会保住这个位置，或者米奇·约翰逊是否会为了增加投射而让朱利安·尚帕尼首发，这将是一件有趣的事情。没有索汉也将迫使约翰逊打替补中锋。也许桑德罗·马穆克拉什维利会得到一个机会，这样球队就可以保持小个阵容？希望索汉能在1月3日做好准备，让所有这些猜测都变得毫无意义，但如果他缺席，可能会有一些有趣的调整。
- 说到索汉，他在下场前防守詹姆斯·哈登，并决心避免在三分球出手时对“大胡子”犯规。他很好地完成了防守，但确保手举起来，停在哈登的旁边或侧边，以防止这位前MVP制造身体接触。索汉一直以来都是一名出色的防守者，但今年他取得了进步，部分原因是他对细节的关注。
- 马刺得到了32分快攻得分和21分失误得分。增加克里斯·保罗的唯一缺点之一是球队的节奏变慢了。这一改变是合理的，因为他们也减少了失误，并且正在学习如何在半场阵地战中给文班喂球，但看到圣安东尼奥在对手投丢后快速反击或简单地加快节奏是很棒的。他们拥有这样的运动员。
- 每支球队都需要一个有趣的垃圾时间球员。垃圾时间球员有两种：一种是通常扮演一个小角色，但在替补席清空时，在绝对的自由发挥空间下变成第一选择（马拉基·布拉纳姆曾几次扮演过这样的角色）；另一种是像在势均力敌的季后赛中那样打球。马穆属于后者。在大比分领先时，这个人身上散发着“把野球比赛看得太重”的能量，但至少当其他人只是在场上散步等待时间结束时，他还在努力。当他的队友们忙着空接和投三分时，马穆正在内线卡住他的防守人，并在另一端抢篮板球。像第一节那样不停地拼搏，你这个英雄。
点击查看原文：What we learned from the Spurs win over the Clippers
What we learned from the Spurs win over the Clippers
It was just a breezy blowout win for the Spurs, which was exactly what they needed after a tough road trip.
The start of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on how things are going, and it’s safe to say the Spurs are in a sweet spot. Not in the standings, mind you, where they sit at ninth with a grueling schedule ahead. But everything feels more meaningful yet somehow less stressful now than it has in years.
These days, everything feels like it matters, even in games that shouldn’t provide many takeaways. Victor Wembanyama beasting inside the arc against a tired Clippers team on the second game of a back-to-back could be meaningless, yes, but it might also signify a flip of a switch that portends more dominant performances from the big man. Stephon Castle coming in to start the second half in place of an injured Jeremy Sochan and scoring inside, getting to the line and being a pest on defense after being near unplayable recently offers a respite for the believers in his star potential. The Spurs pushing the lead in the third is a show of maturity, a sign that they won’t take opponents lightly. Even off the court, whenever there’s a trade rumor involving the franchise or a comment from a top prospect saying he wants to land in San Antonio, it seems momentous.
Bad or questionable things exist and cause concern, but there’s a backdrop of optimism to most of it. The three losses in the road trip preceding the blowout win feel weighty because the team has looked good enough to beat opponents like the 76ers, Knicks and Timberwolves away from the Frost Bank Center. Jeremy Sochan’s lower back injury is frustrating because he was playing great and developing chemistry with the starting lineup, but if he misses time, Castle might get more reps with the starters and get more valuable experience. The backup centers performing poorly? An opportunity to see how smaller lineups do and to look at the trade market, but without feeling the need to take any massive risk. Not much looks truly worrying or lacks a silver lining.
Inevitably, things will change at some point. Maybe as soon as next season expectations will be higher, and expectations are the thieves of joy. The occasional blowout or sporadic promising performance from a struggling player will be celebrated, but all eyes will be on the standings because the goals will be loftier, and rightly so.
For now, the wins are fun and the losses are an opportunity to learn something. There’s no pressure to win a championship like there was in the Big Three era nor a desperation to cling to relevance that defined the years that followed it. Fans can just relax, sit back and enjoy likely the last stress-free Spurs season in a while.
Takeaways
- The Spurs are torturing teams with an extremely simple but effective out-of-bounds play thanks to Victor Wembanyama’s length and outside shooting ability. Every time they have to inbound from the baseline, the first option is to just lob the ball to Wemby, who can dunk it or tip it in. Opponents have decided to put a second defender on Victor and leave the inbounder (normally Chris Paul) open. So Wemby is now relocating to the corner, catching the pass and letting it fly. Against the Clippers, he missed the alley-oop but hit the corner three. There’s no need to dig into minor moments like those to explain why Wemby is a cheat code — a look at his numbers suffices — but it’s always fun to notice those little things.
- If Jeremy Sochan misses time with his lower back injury, it will be interesting to see if Castle, who started the second half for him, holds on to that spot or if Mitch Johnson goes for more shooting and starts Julian Champagnie. No Sochan will also force Johnson to play a backup center. Maybe Sandro Mamukelashvili gets a try so that the unit can stay small? Hopefully Sochan will be ready to go on Jan. 3, making all this speculation moot, but if he’s out, there could be intriguing tweaks.
- Speaking of Sochan, he guarded James Harden before being sidelined and was determined to avoid fouling The Beard on a three-point attempt. He closed out well but made sure to keep his hand up and stop away or to the side of Harden, to prevent the former MVP from creating contact. Sochan has always been a good defender but has taken a leap this year, in part because of his focus on the little things.
- The Spurs had 32 fastbreak points and 21 points off turnovers. One of the only drawbacks of adding Chris Paul is that the team plays slower now. The change makes sense since they also turn over the ball less and are learning how to feed Wembanyama in the half-court, but it’s great to see San Antonio get out on the break or simply push the pace after misses. They have the athletes for it.
- Every team needs a fun garbage-time guy. There are two kinds: the one who normally plays a tiny role but turns into a first option with the greenest of lights when the benches are cleared (Malaki Branham has been one of these guys a few times) or the guy who plays like it’s a tied playoff game. Mamu is the latter. The man has major “guy who takes the pickup game too seriously” energy during blowouts, but at least he tries when others just walk around waiting for the clock to run out. While his teammates were throwing alley-oops and launching threes, Mamu was sealing his man inside the paint and boxing out on the other end. Always keep hustling like it’s the first quarter, you hero.
By Jeje Gomez, via Pounding The Rock