By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-01-30 12:34:02
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。
1月29日星期三在圣安东尼奥的冰霜银行中心举行的NBA比赛上半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)在试图防守洛杉矶快船队前锋科怀·伦纳德(Kawhi Leonard)时手臂被卡住。快船队以128-116击败了马刺队。
三个多星期前，马刺队走进密尔沃基的费哲球馆，刚刚在芝加哥以114-110输掉了一场领先后的比赛，这让他们感到失望，但并没有垂头丧气。
他们告诉自己，是的，他们挥霍了19分的领先优势，搞砸了一场本可以战胜公牛队的比赛，但他们大部分时间仍然打得不错。
即使在两晚后被雄鹿队以121-105击败，马刺队仍然坚持这种推理。
“我们被打得屁滚尿流，”1月8日晚在密尔沃基，马刺队代理教练米奇·约翰逊(Mitch Johnson)说。“我们今年还没有被打得这么惨过。”
对阵雄鹿队的惨败并非偶然，而是一个闪烁的红色警告信号。
当雄鹿队在周五回到冰霜银行中心进行回访时，他们会发现马刺队正处于另一种混乱之中。
最近的惨败越来越多。
在密尔沃基的失利开始了一连串八场马刺队的比赛，分差都达到了两位数。公平地说，马刺队赢了两场——在饱受野火蹂躏的洛杉矶以126-102战胜湖人队，以及在巴黎以140-110战胜印第安纳步行者队。
六场一边倒的失利是那种会留下印记的鞭笞。听听马刺队7尺3寸的中锋怎么说就知道了。
“我认为这是我们本赛季最艰难的时刻，”文班亚马说。
在那段时间里，马刺队遭遇了本赛季最惨痛的两场失利——主场140-112负于孟菲斯灰熊队，以及在巴黎的第二场对阵步行者队的比赛中以136-98告负。
马刺队在周五与雄鹿队的复赛前，刚刚在主场对阵洛杉矶快船队的比赛中，他们在比赛还剩五分钟时领先一分，却在第四节最后阶段被对手打出一波22-9的攻击波，最终以128-116落败。
“在过去的几周里，我们有很多场比赛都一直咬得很紧，然后就会出现一段糟糕的时期，”控球后卫克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)说。“我们已经讨论过这个问题了。这些对我们球队来说都是学习的经验。”
尽管如此，保罗承认，对于一支年轻的球队来说，有更好的学习方法。
“我们必须多赢几场，”保罗说。“任何时候，当你是一支正在学习的球队时，你都希望能够边赢球边学习。”
新年伊始的那种美好的日子已经一去不复返了，当时马刺队在圣安东尼奥以122-86大胜快船队结束了2024年，然后在2025年的首场比赛中客场爆冷击败了丹佛掘金队。
当时的马刺队战绩为18胜16负，球迷中最乐观的人认为打进季后赛是完全有可能的。
从那以后，他们只赢了两场，在周五对阵扬尼斯·阿德托昆博(Giannis Antetokounmpo)和雄鹿队的比赛前，他们的战绩为20胜24负，排在西部联盟第12位，并且完全有可能跌出附加赛的竞争行列。
“对于我们这支过去两年没有赢太多比赛的球队来说，关键在于日积月累，”保罗说。“我们怎样才能继续把胜利串联起来？”
周三对阵快船队的比赛中，这个问题仍然是假设性的。
在第三节一度落后多达16分的情况下，马刺队凭借文班亚马在比赛还剩5分38秒时投进的三分球反超比分。在接下来的两个回合中，快船队的伊维察·祖巴茨(Ivica Zubac)和马刺队的德文·瓦塞尔(Devin Vassell)互飙得分后，他们再次取得领先。
从那以后，比赛就完全被快船队掌控了。
洛杉矶队主要赢在篮板上，他们以57-30的篮板球优势和22-7的二次得分优势胜出。
科怀·伦纳德和诺曼·鲍威尔(Norman Powell)分别得到27分，表现出色，但7尺高的祖巴茨才是快船队的明星。他最终得到21分和22个篮板，经常在文班亚马不在场时利用马刺队的小个阵容得分。
“很多势均力敌的比赛最终感觉比实际情况要糟糕得多，”约翰逊说。“我认为我们在整场比赛中都表现出了很强的韧性，但你必须称赞他们结束比赛的方式。”
然而，一场惨败就是一场惨败，即使它发生在第四节的五分钟内。
马刺队接下来的赛程对他们来说并不利于立即复苏。
雄鹿队离开后，马刺队将主场迎战迈阿密热火队——尽管由于全明星后卫吉米·巴特勒(Jimmy Butler)断断续续的禁赛而功能失调，但在前往巴黎之前，热火队给了他们一场两位数的失利。
对于马刺队来说，彻底的反弹可能要等到客场才能实现。
与热火队的比赛是马刺队在圣安东尼奥的最后一场比赛，之后他们将踏上一年一度的牛仔竞技客场之旅。他们要到3月份才能回到冰霜银行中心的球场。
牛仔竞技之旅的首场比赛是在孟菲斯，对手是灰熊队，他们在过去16场对阵马刺队的比赛中赢了15场。
在那之后，在全明星赛之前的比赛中，马刺队将面对一些更容易取胜的客场比赛，包括亚特兰大老鹰队、夏洛特黄蜂队和华盛顿奇才队，以及奥兰多魔术队和波士顿凯尔特人队等更强硬的对手。
在文班亚马看来，走出马刺队本赛季最艰难时刻的唯一方法就是坚持下去。
“我认为我们走在正确的道路上，”他说。“虽然我讨厌输球，输球的感觉很糟糕，但赢球的感觉太好了。很容易忘记赢球的感觉，但它就在那里。”
周五对阵雄鹿队的比赛中，马刺队希望能有机会重新记起这种感觉。
San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell (24) drives the ball as forward Jeremy Sochan (10) sets a screen on Los Angeles Clippers guard Bones Hyland (5) during the second half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
San Antonio Spurs guard Tre Jones (33) passes the ball as he drives past Los Angeles Clippers guard Kevin Porter Jr. (77) under the basket during the second half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
San Antonio Spurs guard Tre Jones (33) drives on Los Angeles Clippers guard Terance Mann (14) during the second half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
San Antonio Spurs acting head coach Mitch Johnson argues for a call with official Jason Goldenberg (35) during the second half of their NBA game with the Los Angeles Clippers at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) talks with forward Keldon Johnson (0) during the first half of their NBA game with the Los Angeles Clippers at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (0) and guard Devin Vassell (24) pick up forward Victor Wembanyama (1) after a fall during the first half of their NBA game with the Los Angeles Clippers at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) drives on San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) during the first half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
点击查看原文：Spurs' season nearing brink as rodeo trip nears
Spurs’ season nearing brink as rodeo trip nears
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) gets his arm stuck while trying to defend Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) during the first half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. The Clippers beat the Spurs 128-116.
A little more than three weeks ago, the Spurs walked into Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum fresh off a fall-from-ahead 114-110 loss at Chicago that left them disappointed but not downtrodden.
Yes, they had blown a 19-point lead and botched a winnable game against the Bulls, they told themselves, but they were still mostly playing good basketball.
It was a line of reasoning the Spurs clung to even after being manhandled by the Bucks 121-105 two nights later.
“We got our butt kicked,” Spurs acting coach Mitch Johnson said the night of Jan. 8 in Milwaukee. “We haven’t got our butt kicked a lot this year.”
Instead of an anomaly, that blowout loss against the Bucks proved to be a flashing red warning sign.
When the Bucks make their will return trip to the Frost Bank Center on Friday, they will discover a Spurs team in a different sort of disarray.
The butt-kickings have been more plentiful recently.
The setback in Milwaukee commenced a string of eight consecutive Spurs games to be decided by double-digit margins. To be fair, the Spurs won two of them – 126-102 against the Lakers in wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles and 140-110 against the Indiana Pacers in Paris.
The six lopsided losses were the sort of whippings that will leave a mark. Just take it from the Spurs’ 7-foot-3 centerpiece.
“I think this is our toughest point of the season,” Victor Wembanyama said.
In that stretch, the Spurs have suffered their two most lopsided losses of the season – 140-112 at home against Memphis, and 136-98 in the second game against the Pacers in Paris.
The Spurs enter Friday’s rematch with the Bucks coming off a home game against the Los Angeles Clippers in which they led by a point with five minutes to play, only to cough up a 22-9 run to close the fourth quarter in a 128-116 defeat.
“We’ve had a lot of games over the past couple of weeks where we’re always in the game, and then there’s a bad stretch,” point guard Chris Paul said. “We’ve talked about it. These are all learning experiences for our team.”
Still, Paul acknowledges there is a better way for a young team to learn.
“We’ve got to win some more,” Paul said. “Any time you’re a team trying to learn, you want to win and learn at the same time.”
Gone are the feel-good days of the turn of the new year, when the Spurs capped 2024 with a rousing 122-86 win over the Clippers in San Antonio, then kicked off 2025 by stunning the Denver Nuggets on the road.
The Spurs were 18-16 then, with the more optimistic among the fan base considering a playoff run to be a full-on possibility.
They have won only twice since, and enter Friday against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks at 20-24, in 12th place of the Western Conference, and in peril of falling out of the play-in race entirely.
“With our team, knowing the past two years that didn’t win as much, it’s all about stacking days,” Paul said. “How can we continue to put wins together?”
Wednesday against the Clippers, that question continued to be hypothetical.
Having trailed by as many as 16 points in the third quarter, the Spurs took the lead on a Wembanyama 3-pointer with 5:38 to play. They went ahead again after the Clippers’ Ivica Zubac and Spurs’ Devin Vassell traded baskets on the next two possessions.
From there it was all Clippers, all the time.
L.A. mostly won the game on the glass, with a 57-30 rebounding edge and a 22-7 advantage in second-chance points.
As good as Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell were on their way to 27 points apiece, the 7-foot Zubac was the star for the Clippers. He finished with 21 points and 22 rebounds, often feasting on the undersized frontline the Spurs employed when Wembanyama was on the bench.
“A lot of plays in the balance probably ended up feeling a lot worse than it was,” Johnson said. “I thought we had some great resolve throughout the game, but you give them a lot of credit the way they closed the game out.”
A butt-kicking is a butt-kicking, however, even if it comes in the span of five minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Spurs’ upcoming schedule does not bode well for an immediate recovery.
After the Bucks leave town, the Spurs host a Miami team that – although dysfunctional due the on-again, off-again suspensions of All-Star guard Jimmy Butler – handed them a double-digit defeat just before the Paris trip.
For the Spurs, a full rebound might have to come on the road.
The visit from the Heat marks the Spurs’ final contest in San Antonio before hitting the road for the annual rodeo road trip. They will not be back on the Frost Bank Center floor until March.
The rodeo trip begins with a game in Memphis, against a Grizzlies team that has won 15 of the past 16 against the Spurs.
After that, the Spurs will face some more winnable road games in a stretch before the All-Star break that includes Atlanta, Charlotte and Washington, mixed in with tougher opponents in Orlando and Boston.
The way Wembanyama sees it, the only way out of the Spurs’ toughest part of the season is through.
“I think we’re on the right way,” he said. “As much as I hate losing, losing feels awful, but winning feels so great. It’s easy to forget about winning, but it’s right there.”
Friday against the Bucks, the Spurs are hoping for a chance to remember.
By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer, via San Antonio Express-News