By Jacob Douglas | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-02-10 00:36:01
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。
也许是时候重新审视对圣安东尼奥的期望了。
在超级碗周末，圣安东尼奥马刺队经历了两次令人心碎的失利。先是与黄蜂队的比赛，现在是以112-111输给奥兰多魔术队。你可能会说，他们本应该以超过个位数的优势赢得这两场比赛。
魔术队在争抢五五开的球时更快，在进攻篮板上碾压了马刺队，并在内线占据了优势。听起来耳熟吗？这些与周五让夏洛特带走胜利的问题完全相同。魔术队在内线以56-34击败了马刺队，并抢下了13个进攻篮板。是的，奥兰多是一支更大、更强壮的球队，但这些问题不应该连续出现在两场比赛中。
你现在可以为马刺队找很多借口。“牛仔竞技表演”的客场之旅很难。在那段时间里整合另一位关键人物——德阿隆·福克斯(De’Aaron Fox)甚至更难。很明显，维克托·文班亚马（Victor Wembanyama），也就是文班亚马正在处理某种疾病或身体状况问题，这使他看起来与本赛季的大部分时间大相径庭。他们正艰难地走向全明星赛前的休息，只剩下两场比赛了。
虽然所有这些观点都有效，但它们并不能弥补圣安东尼奥已经跌至西部联盟第13位，落后于波特兰开拓者队，并且发现自己落后第10名三场比赛的事实。马刺队进入附加赛的梦想正在随着这段糟糕的比赛而消逝，也许是时候重新审视对这支球队的期望了。
光明的一面是——圣安东尼奥有两个关键的建队基石，在选秀大年中拥有两个潜在的乐透签，以及像斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)、杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)和德文·瓦塞尔(Devin Vassell)这样的年轻球员，他们在赛季中取得了进步。是的，这段时间的比赛令人沮丧，并损害了他们进入季后赛的机会，但马刺队仍然比去年更好，并且处于未来发展的有利位置。
要点：
- 奥兰多是NBA中最好的防守球队之一。他们依靠侧翼和内线的身高和身体对抗来获得优势。乔纳森·艾萨克为马刺队的后卫制造了很多问题，他堵塞了突破路线，并对持球人施加压力。当杰伦·萨格斯上场时，球队会更加难以招架。我认为马刺队可以尝试效仿魔术队在防守端所做的大部分事情。寻找身材高大、运动能力强的侧翼球员，他们可以在防守端制造混乱，与福克斯和文班亚马并肩作战，这似乎是一个强大的阵容构建目标。
- 哈里森·巴恩斯是马刺队自某某以来最有趣的的角色球员？ 他第一节的爆发令人赏心悦目。开场时他命中了6个三分球，得到18分。然后感觉他再也没有在比赛中找到投篮机会。这很可能是魔术队做出调整的结果。如果在如此出色的开局之后，能为手感火热的球员制定更多的战术，那就太好了。
- 我看到一些人抱怨比赛最后时刻的战术安排。听着，如果你能让一名后卫换防到你7尺4寸的大个子在高位单打，我认为十分之九的情况下你会接受这个结果。也许文班亚马需要在那里找到一个更好的常用动作，但让他在那里拿球的逻辑是合理的。如果球进了，可能对这个战术会有截然不同的共识。
- 瓦塞尔在过去两场比赛中提高了档次。在福克斯和文班被给予更多防守关注的情况下，他在“第三选择”的角色中茁壮成长。他有更多的时间摆脱掩护，命中中距离和三分球。他更积极地冲向篮筐。他的25分之夜非常高效，14投11中。如果能看到他更多这样的表现，那就太好了。
- 卡斯尔是个野兽。他可能还不是一个完美的球员，但他比一半的球员更有成年人的动作。一旦他找到油漆区外投篮的感觉，他将在每场比赛中成为一个麻烦。他现在应该是年度最佳新秀的热门人选，并且有潜力成为一名非常出色的球员。
- 圣安东尼奥必须找到让福克斯冲击篮筐的方法。在过去的两场比赛中，似乎如果他没有在转换进攻中获得机会，他就会选择跳投。这需要更多的zoom战术，让他从手递手中出来，或者通过高位挡拆创造直线突破。某种进攻创造力能让你的新星参与其中，这将在进攻上对他们有很大的帮助。
点击查看原文：What we learned from the Spurs loss to the Magic
What we learned from the Spurs loss to the Magic
It may be time to reconsider expectations in San Antonio.
The San Antonio Spurs have experienced two heartbreaking losses over Super Bowl weekend. First, the game with the Hornets and now a 112-111 loss to the Orlando Magic. You could argue that they should have won both games by more than single digits.
The Magic were quicker to 50-50 balls, abused the Spurs on the offensive glass, and dominated them in the paint. Sound familiar? Those are the same issues that allowed Charlotte to take home a win on Friday. The Magic outscored the Spurs 56-34 in the paint and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds against the Spurs. Yes, Orlando is a bigger, more physical team, but those issues can’t come up in back-to-back games.
You can make a lot of excuses for the Spurs right now. The rodeo road trip is hard. It’s even harder to integrate another key piece in De’Aaron Fox during that stretch. It’s clear that Victor Wembanyama is dealing with some sort of illness or conditioning issue that has him looking much different than he has for the majority of the season. They are limping to the All-Star Break with just two games left to go.
While all these points are valid, they don’t make up for the fact that San Antonio has dropped to 13th in the Western Conference behind the Portland Trail Blazers and find themselves three games out of the 10 seed. The Spurs’ play-in dreams are slipping with this stretch of bad play, and it may be time to reconsider expectations for this team.
The bright side – San Antonio has two key building blocks, two potential lottery picks in a loaded draft, and young players like Stephon Castle, Jeremy Sochan, and Devin Vassell who have made improvements this season. Yes, this stretch of play is frustrating and hurts their chances of making a playoff push, but the Spurs are still better than last year and are in a prime position to improve moving forward.
Takeaways:
- Orlando is one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. They make their hay with length and physicality on the wings and inside. Jonathan Isaac created so many issues for the Spurs’ guards by clogging driving lanes and pressuring on the ball. When Jalen Suggs plays it’s even harder for teams. I think the Spurs can try to emulate a lot of what the Magic do defensively moving forward. Finding long, athletic wings who can cause havoc defensively to play alongside Fox and Wembanyama feels like a strong roster-building goal.
- Harrison Barnes is the most fun Spurs role player since? His first-quarter explosion was a joy to watch. He had 18 points on 6 three-pointers coming out of the gate. Then it felt like he never found shots in the game flow. This is likely a credit to the Magic adjusting. It would have been nice to see a few more plays drawn up for the hot hand after such a good start.
- I’ve seen some complaints about the play call on the final possession of the game. Look, if you can get a guard to switch on to your 7-foot-4 big man in a high post isolation, I think you take that result nine times out of ten. Maybe Wembanyama needs to find a better go-to move there, but the logic behind getting him the ball there is sound. There is probably a much different consensus around the play if the ball goes in.
- Vassell has turned things up a notch in the last two games. He’s thrived in the “third option” role with more defensive attention given to Fox and Wemby. He’s been able to spend more time coming off screens, nailing shots in the mid-range and from three. He’s more aggressively getting downhill. His 25-point night was super efficient as he shot 11 of 14 from the field. It would be great to see more of this from him moving forward.
- Castle is a beast. He may not be a complete player yet, but he makes more grown-man moves to the rim than half of the roster. Once he finds his touch on shots outside of the paint, he is going to be a problem on a night-to-night basis. He should be the Rookie of the Year favorite now and has the potential to be a really good player for a long time.
- San Antonio has to find a way to get Fox moving downhill. In the last two games, it’s seemed like if he’s not getting out in transition, he’s settling for jumpers. That calls for more zoom action to get him coming off a dribble handoff or creating straight-line drives off high pick and rolls. Some sort of offensive creativity to get your new star involved would do them a lot of favors offensively.
By Jacob Douglas, via Pounding The Rock