By GaryQfromSanJose | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-02-18 21:37:38
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。
对于马刺球迷来说，这是一个美好的周末，同时也是“Inside the NBA”节目组与厄尼、肯尼、查克和沙克的全明星周末告别演出
在备受诟病的改良版全明星赛制下（引来了大量合理的批评），肯尼·史密斯的青年队（Young Stars）与查尔斯·巴克利的全球队（Global Stars）展开角逐，胜者将与坎迪斯·帕克执教的新秀队（Rising Stars）和沙奎尔·奥尼尔的元老队（OG Squad）之间的胜者争夺最终的冠军。
维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)和查克队以一波11-5的攻势，最终以41-32击败肯尼队，赢得了首场比赛。而正如预期的那样，沙克队以42-35击败了新秀队，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)在赛前接受了与斯蒂芬·库里的采访。沙克队最终以41-25的比分轻松获胜，主场作战的库里凭借一系列三分球，包括一记流畅的半场投篮和一记跑动三分球，荣膺MVP。
由于这个赛制（以及整个夜晚的活动）本质上是对备受尊敬的“Inside the NBA”节目组的告别，观众们似乎最深刻的印象是，大量时间都没有花在真正的篮球比赛上。
整个夜晚的基调在感人（NBA授予“Inside the NBA”节目组“去钓鱼”主题的礼物）到令人尴尬（Mr. Beast的10万美元挑战赛）到随意（来自不同湾区艺术家的演唱会，包括我个人最喜欢的En Vogue！）到“我们在这里干什么？”（在沙克队打出一波11-1的攻势时，中断比赛来安排那个感人的时刻——花了超过15分钟）之间摇摆不定。 最终，圣安东尼奥的文班亚马和卡斯尔的出色表现，挽救了本可能是一场沉闷的周日夜晚。
观察
- 文班亚马，尽管在过去几周看起来明显疲惫，甚至身体不适，但他认真对待了比赛。
- 这种将周五获胜的新秀队晋级到周日表演赛的赛制需要被取消或进行重大修改。
- 我注意到，当凯文·哈特（不太有趣）在转播期间与“Inside the NBA”节目组重述他的许多老笑话时，《周六夜现场》正在直播其50周年庆典（更有趣）。
- 勒布朗·詹姆斯最终没有参加比赛，并且无意中（或自私地）占据了另一个有价值的全明星名额，本可以给像多曼塔斯·萨博尼斯这样的人。
- 文班轻松时刻 ：在首场半决赛中，在凯德·坎宁安空中虚晃中锋并直接突破到篮筐后，文班亚马及时回防，有力地扇掉了他的扣篮尝试。在决赛开始时，文班亚马在转换进攻中投进了一个漂亮的急停三分，并完成了一记滑翔式扣篮。
- 卡斯尔高地 ：在坎迪斯队的首轮失利中，他完成了一记漂亮抛投和一个从后场到前场的上篮。在沙克队试图终结他的球队时，他也有一次漂亮的抢断。
- 全明星之夜最佳防守球员 ：凯里·欧文？
- 尼古拉·约基奇、卡尔-安东尼·唐斯和文班亚马在首场半决赛中的内线组合简直是天外来客。唐斯命中了一记40英尺开外的三分球，文班亚马在左侧低位接球并扣篮，并在另一端盖掉了埃文·莫布里的上篮，而约基奇在一系列回合中真的努力防守了。
- 在获胜后，查克的全球队在与沙克队进行决赛之前，等待了超过40分钟。
圣安东尼奥将在周四晚上8:30接受TNT的直播，他们的对手是德文·布克和菲尼克斯太阳队。
点击查看原文：Victor Wembanyama’s successful All-Star debut and much ado made of TNT
Victor Wembanyama’s successful All-Star debut and much ado made of TNT
It was a good weekend to be a Spurs fan and an All-Star Weekend farewell to Ernie, Kenny, Chuck and Shaq
In the modified All-Star Game format that drew a great amount of fair criticism, Kenny Smith’s Young Stars took on Charles Barkley’s Global Stars for the right to advance to the final against the winner of the matchup between the Rising Stars team managed by Candace Parker and Shaquille O’Neal’s OG Squad.
Victor Wembanyama and Team Chuck used an 11-5 run to close out Team Kenny 41-32 in game one, while Team Shaq, as expected, put away the upstart Rising Stars squad 42-35 that saw Stephon Castle get the pre-game interview opposite Stephen Curry. Team Shaq claimed the final 41-25 in runaway fashion, and the hometown host, Curry, won the MVP for raining down a handful of threes, including a smooth halfcourt shot and a running three-pointer.
Because this format (and the whole evening in general) was essentially a farewell to the venerated ‘Inside the NBA’ studio team, one of the main things that viewers seemed to take away was the sheer amount of time that DIDN’T involve actual basketball played.
The tone of the evening vacillated between touching (the NBA awarding the Inside the NBA team ‘Gone Fishing’ themed gifts) to cringey (Mr. Beast’s $100K challenge) to random (a concert set from different Bay Area artists, including personal favorite En Vogue!) to ‘what are we doing here?’ (interrupting an 11-1 run by Team Shaq for that touching moment — that took over 15 minutes). Ultimately, San Antonio’s Wembanyama and Castle showed out to help salvage what could have been a funereal Sunday night.
Observations
- Wembanyama, despite looking visibly winded and maybe medically ill the past several weeks, took the games seriously.
- This format of advancing the winning Rising Stars team from Friday to the Sunday showcase needs to be shuttered or modified significantly.
- It wasn’t lost on me that, while Kevin Hart (not-as-funny) was rehashing a lot of his old jokes with the Inside the NBA team during the telecast, SNL was broadcasting its 50th anniversary celebration (much more funny).
- LeBron James ended up not playing and unintentionally (or selfishly) taking another worthy All-Star slot that could have gone to someone like Domantas Sabonis.
- Victor Ease: In the first semi-finals, and after Cade Cunningham upfaked the center in the air and drove righ to the rim, Wembanyama sufficiently recovered to emphatically swat away his dunk attempt. At the start of the final, Wembanyama had a good looking pull-up three in transition and a gliding transition dunk to boot.
- Castle Hills: He had a nice floater and a coast-to-coast transition lay-up in Team Candace’s opening round loss. He also had a deflection while Team Shaq was trying to close his team out.
- Defensive Player of All-Star Night: Kyrie Irving???
- Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Wembanyama in the opening semifinal was an otherworldly frontline. Towns connected on a a three from 40+ feet out, Wembanyama took a feed on the left block and dunked home a drive and turned away Evan Mobley at the other end, while Jokic actually tried on defense over a series of possessions.
- After their win, Chuck’s Global Stars ended up sitting over 40 minutes before taking on Team Shaq in the finals.
San Antonio gets the TNT treatment on Thursday night at 8:30 PM with a match-up against Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns.
By GaryQfromSanJose, via Pounding The Rock