By Devon Birdsong | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-04-02 15:19:34
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。
状态低迷的马刺面对志在季后赛的掘金，除了奋力一搏别无他法
你有没有预料到自己会被狠狠地教训一顿？
也许你在高中，准备在一次突如其来的肠胃病毒后第二天参加一场篮球比赛。也许你在大学，准备面对一支来自一个远超你自身水平的联赛和天赋等级的球队。
也许你还是个十二岁的孩子，刚成功地把一个装满巧克力布丁的恶作剧坐垫偷偷放在了你最讨厌的老师的椅子上。
如果你能以任何方式与以上这些完全是假设而非真实存在的例子产生共鸣，我想你也能体会到那种挥之不去的恐惧感。
当你还是个孩子，并且惹上了麻烦（我是说 真的 惹上了麻烦），无论多少个中学同学叫一个你讨厌的老师“布丁裤”，都无法消除你胃里那种确定的感觉。
你惹上麻烦了，而且你知道这一点。唯一剩下的真正问题是：情况会糟糕到什么程度？
我想，这个问题占据了马刺队球员们的大部分心思，他们一方面想在赛季剩余的时间里继续摆烂，另一方面又想尽力保持某种程度的自尊。
在遭遇五连败之后，马刺队依旧看不到希望，他们面对的是一连串仍在争夺季后赛席位的好球队。
从球队组织层面来看，马刺队似乎很乐意在这个赛季的这个阶段增加失利，但你不得不为那些球员们感到难过，他们原本感觉终于看到了曙光，却失去了他们本赛季最好的球员。
现在，他们不得不在背靠背的第二晚艰难地跋涉到这座海拔一英里的城市（对于不习惯这种高度的肺部来说，这总是令人愉快的事情），并迎战一支刚刚在第二个加时赛中失利，并且正努力在竞争激烈的西部联盟中保住前四种子的丹佛掘金队。
通常情况下，这将是才华横溢的欧洲巨兽之间一场令人惊叹的对决。通常情况下，由于掘金队伤病缠身，而且自己也处于背靠背的状态，这可能会让人觉得马刺队有机会从一支有冠军抱负的球队身上偷走一场胜利。
但现在，马刺队将面对一支怒气冲冲的掘金队，他们需要尽可能地拉开差距，以及一位状态极佳的尼古拉·约基奇(Nikola Jokic)，他刚刚完成了NBA历史上第三个60分三双。
我正在尽我所能寻找马刺队有可能偷走这场胜利的方法，但无论如何也找不到。
有时候，你只需要面对现实，摆出一副勇敢的表情，然后责怪另一个同学。不过，我认为这在这里行不通。
希望奇迹发生。
圣安东尼奥马刺 vs. 丹佛掘金
2025年4月2日 | 中部时间晚上8:00
观看：FanDuel Sports Network Southwest | 收听：WOAI (1200 AM)
马刺队伤病情况： 维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) - 缺阵（再生怪兽），达龙·福克斯(DeAaron Fox) - 缺阵（手部），查尔斯·巴锡(Charles Bassey) - 每日观察（膝盖）
掘金队伤病情况： 尼古拉·约基奇 - 每日观察（脚踝），贾马尔·穆雷(Jamal Murray) - 每日观察（腿筋），阿隆·戈登(Aaron Gordon) - 每日观察（疾病/腿部），克里斯蒂安·布劳恩(Christian Braun) - 每日观察（脚部），朱利安·斯特劳瑟(Julian Strawther) - 缺阵（膝盖），达龙·霍姆斯(DaRon Holmes) - 缺阵（跟腱）
若想了解掘金队球迷的观点，请访问Denver Stiffs。
PtR的比赛讨论帖将于今晚开放，供那些想在比赛期间聊天的人使用。你也可以通过 PtR的Twitter feed 关注比赛进程。
点击查看原文：Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs. Denver Nuggets
Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs. Denver Nuggets
The slumping Spurs face the playoff-bound Nuggets with nothing but a slingshot
Have you ever anticipated being on the receiving end of a good old-fashioned butt kicking?
Maybe you were in high school, preparing to play a game of basketball the day after a random stomach virus. Maybe you were in college, getting ready to face a team from a division and talent level far well beyond your own.
Maybe you were a twelve-year-old fresh off the success of sneaking a whoopie cushion full of chocolate pudding into the chair of your least favorite teacher.
If you can in any way relate to these completely hypothetical and not at all real examples above, I imagine you’d also be able to relate to that hanging sense of dread.
When you’re in trouble as a kid (and I mean really in trouble), no amount of fellow middle-schoolers calling a hated teacher ‘pudding pants’ is going to remove that sense of certainty from the pit of your stomach.
You’re in trouble, and you know it. The only real question left is: how bad is it gonna be?
I imagine that’s a question taking up a lot of space in the minds of a Spurs team split between tanking out the rest of a lost season, and doing their best to maintain a certain degree of self-respect.
Fresh off of their 5th straight loss, the Spurs just cannot find daylight, facing a parade of good teams still jockeying for playoff position.
The Spurs organizationally seem more or less happy to appease the loss column at this point of the season, but you have to feel for the players who must have finally felt like they were seeing the daylight of relevance before losing their best player for the season.
And now they’ll have to trudge their way up to the mile-high city on the 2nd night of a back-to-back (always a delight for lungs not accustomed to the altitude) and take on a Denver team that just lost in 2nd overtime, trying to hold onto a top 4 seed amidst the standings of an perpetually cutthroat Western Conference.
Normally, this would be an awe-inspiring showdown between talented European behemoths. Normally, with Denver banged up and on a back-to-back of their own, this might feel like a game that could be stolen from a team with championship aspirations.
Instead, the Spurs will be facing a ticked-off Nuggets team who need every inch of separation they can get, and a Nikola Jokić in such good form that he just pulled off just the third sixty-point triple-double in NBA history.
I’m doing my best to look for ways that the Spurs could conceivably steal this one, but the math just isn’t mathing.
Sometimes you just have to face the music, put on a brave expression, and blame another classmate. I don’t think that’s going to work here, though.
Here’s hoping for a miracle.
San Antonio Spurs at Denver Nuggets
April 2nd, 2025 | 8:00 CT
Watch: FanDuel Sports Network Southwest | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)
Spurs Injuries: Victor Wembanyama - Out (Regenerating Kaiju), DeAaron Fox - Out (Hand), Charles Bassey - Day-to-Day (Knee)
Nuggets Injuries: Nikola Jokic - Day-to-Day (Ankle), Jamal Murray - Day-to-Day (Hamstring), Aaron Gordon - Day-to-Day (Illness/Leg), Christian Braun - Day-to-Day (Foot), Julian Strawther - Out (Knee), DaRon Holmes - Out (Achilles)
For the Nuggets’ fan’s perspective, please visit Denver Stiffs.
PtR’s Game thread will be up this evening for those who want to chat through the game. You can also follow along with the action through PtR’s Twitter feed.
By Devon Birdsong, via Pounding The Rock