By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-11-06 16:31:07
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。
2025年11月5日，星期三，于洛杉矶举行的一场NBA篮球比赛中，洛杉矶湖人队中锋贾克森·海斯（左）、圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋凯尔登·约翰逊（左二）、前锋维克托·文班亚马（右二）和前锋道尔顿·克内克特（右）在下半场等待拼抢篮板球。(美联社图片/Mark J. Terrill)
洛杉矶——如果一切都按马刺队的计划进行，德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 将在本周末开始执掌球队进攻。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 将从为他人创造机会的部分重担中解放出来，开始更多地为自己创造机会。这样一来，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 就将重获呼吸空间。
但正如NBA在过去几天提醒文班亚马的那样，其他球队也同样有自己的计划。看似喘息的空间，可能在瞬间就变成三人包夹，届时这位以沉浸于书本而闻名的21岁年轻人，将不得不切换到“游戏模式”，临场应对更棘手的问题、更迅速的抉择和更强硬的抵抗。
“我想这应该叫作‘等级匹配’，”文班亚马说。
从现在开始，挑战的等级只会越来越高。福克斯期待已久的赛季首秀（或许就在周六晚上）应该会有所帮助。同样能带来帮助的还有卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 的最终回归，他仍在处理顽固的脚踝伤势，马刺队希望在给他开出医疗许可之前，绝对确保其脚踝结构性完好。
尽管如此，正如湖人队主教练J.J. 雷迪克 (J.J. Redick) 在周三指出的那样，联盟其他29支球队里经验丰富的篮球智囊们，正在花费大量时间设计新战术，以限制马刺队这位7尺4英寸的超级巨星，其中一些想法注定会相当高明。当一个战术奏效时，就像菲尼克斯太阳队上周日所做的那样，其他球队不仅会模仿，还会试图加以改良。
而有时，这会让文班亚马感到晕头转向，就像他在周三以116-118输给湖人队的比赛中那样。赛后他说，那场比赛中的包夹比他职业生涯中任何时候都来得更快，并指出“感觉比赛的节奏不知怎么地就加快了。”
在经历了长达八个月的休赛期后，文班亚马以如天神下凡般的五场比赛表现强势回归，但现在他连续两场的发挥却 decidedly non-alien（判若两人），在对阵太阳和湖人的比赛中，他总计28投9中，并出现了11次失误。但在他极其坦诚的剖析中，他也特意澄清了另一件事。
“我并不会为此感到焦虑，”文班亚马说。
看，他以前也经历过这些。在他NBA生涯的前两个赛季里，都曾有过防守方似乎找到了克制他的办法，以及对手成功将他挤出自己喜欢的得分区域的时期。
当时的情况细节有所不同。本周太阳和湖人所采用战术的复杂之处，与文班亚马曾经面对的（比如说，当时还在休斯顿的狄龙·布鲁克斯 (Dillon Brooks) 或在俄克拉荷马城的阿莱克斯·卡鲁索 (Alex Caruso)）问题不尽相同。但在那些情况下，文班亚马都被迫做出调整，而他也总能做到。
制定战术的教练组可以提供帮助，他身边的队友也可以。但听他的教练说，文班亚马在艰难的夜晚还有另一种应对方式。
“他需要更坚决地去要球，”米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 说。“他应该对着训练馆里的每个人大喊，包括他的队友和我自己，然后他就会没事的。”
对这个理论稍作商榷的话，马刺队在过去两场比赛中并非没有竭尽全力围绕文班亚马来组织进攻。在过去几个赛季，队友们或许会因为过多地偏离他而受到指责。但在对阵太阳和湖人的比赛中，球大多数时间都在他手里，只是他难以有效处理。
“在比赛的某些时刻，你需要重新调整，”文班亚马说。“但这说起来容易做起来难。”
更多的挡拆配合或许是一个解决方案，而这正是球队最高薪球员的回归可能带来巨大改变的地方。
福克斯在夏天遭遇了腿筋伤势，尽管他在六周前就宣称自己已接近痊愈，但马刺队对他的恢复过程一直保持谨慎。
在媒体最近几周观看的多次五对五训练中，福克斯展现了他那一贯顶级的速度。但马刺队知道，伤势复发可能迫使他从头开始整个康复过程，所以他们一直等到确信他能承受首发球员的比赛负荷后，才让他上场比赛。
如果他本周末披挂上阵，将不会面临任何严格的上场时间限制。他将从一开始就火力全开，这不仅对文班亚马，对卡斯尔来说也应该是个好兆头——后者在新秀赛季令人印象深刻的开局中，唯一的污点就是失误数领跑全联盟。
如今，打无球对卡斯尔来说更为自然，如果他能更专注于得分，那么针对文班亚马的包夹应该就会来得稍慢一些。
然后，当然，联盟其余29支球队的教练组将再次寻求对策。
当他们这么做的时候呢？
文班亚马将毫不焦虑地，寻求挑战新的高度。
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, left, goes up fora dunk as Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, right, shoots as Los Angeles Lakers forward Rui Hachimura defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Phoenix Suns center Mark Williams (15) defends as San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) dribbles into the paint during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Mike Christy)
Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, left, and San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, second from left, battle for the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Nov 2, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Mike Christy)
Phoenix Suns forward Oso Ighodaro, right, guards against San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Nov 2, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Mike Christy)
点击查看原文：Why Victor Wembanyama isn't stressing over recent struggles
Why Victor Wembanyama isn’t stressing over recent struggles
Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes, left, San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson, second from left, forward Victor Wembanyama, second from right, and forward Dalton Knecht wait for a rebound during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
LOS ANGELES — If all goes according to the Spurs’ plan, De’Aaron Fox will start running the show this weekend. Stephon Castle, freed from some of the burden to create for others, will begin creating more for himself. And just like that, Victor Wembanyama will have room to breathe again.
But as the NBA reminded Wembanyama over the past few days, other teams have plans, too. What looks like breathing room can turn into a triple-team in an instant, and then the 21-year-old known for immersing himself in books will have to shift to video-game mode, adjusting on the fly to thornier problems, quicker choices and stiffer resistance.
“I think it’s called level-scaling,” Wembanyama said.
The levels only get tougher from here. The long-awaited season debut of Fox, perhaps on Saturday night, should help. So should the eventual return of Luke Kornet, still dealing with a balky ankle the Spurs want to make absolutely sure is structurally sound before they give him medical clearance.
Still, as Lakers coach J.J. Redick noted on Wednesday, 29 rooms full of experienced basketball minds are spending considerable time scheming new ways to neutralize the Spurs’ 7-foot-4 superstar, and some of those ideas are bound to be pretty smart. When one works, as Phoenix’s did last Sunday, other teams don’t just copy it, they try to improve it.
And sometimes, that leaves Wembanyama dizzied like he was during a 118-116 loss to the Lakers on Wednesday, when he said the double-teams came quicker than they ever had in his career, and noted that “it feels like the game is going fast somehow.”
After an all-universe five-game outburst following an eight-month layoff, he’s now had two decidedly non-alien outings in a row, shooting 9-for-28 from the field while committing 11 turnovers against the Suns and Lakers. But amid his brutal honesty, he made a point of making something else clear.
“I’m not stressing over it,” Wembanyama said.
See, he’s been through this before. In each of his first two NBA seasons, there were stretches when it looked like defenses were figuring him out, and when opponents had spares of success pushing him away from his favorite spots.
The details were different then. The intricacies of what the Suns and Lakers did this week weren’t exactly like the problems Wembanyama once had against, say, Dillon Brooks when he was in Houston, or against Alex Caruso in Oklahoma City. But in those cases, Wembanyama was forced to adjust, and he always did.
The staff drawing up plays can help. So can the players around him. But to hear his coach tell it, there’s another way for Wembanyama to respond during difficult nights.
“He needs to be more demonstrative and demand the ball,” Mitch Johnson said. “He should yell at everybody in the gym, including his teammates and myself, and he’ll be fine.”
To quibble just a bit with that theory, it’s not as though the Spurs haven’t been doing their darnedest to run their offense through Wembanyama during the past two games. In past seasons, teammates might have been guilty of straying away from him too much. Against the Suns and Lakers, he had the ball in his hands more often than not, but struggled to do much with it.
“At times during the game you need to reset,” Wembanyama said. “It is easier said than done.”
More pick-and-roll action might be one solution to this, and that’s where the return of the franchise’s highest-paid player might make a huge difference.
Fox suffered a hamstring injury over the summer, and even though he pronounced himself close to healed six weeks ago, the Spurs have been cautious with his ramp-up process.
During multiple five-on-five sessions the media has watched in recent weeks, Fox showed his typical 99th-percentile quickness. But knowing that a re-aggravation could force him to start the rehab process all over again, the Spurs held off on throwing him into a game until they were sure he could hold up under a starter’s workload.
If he suits up this weekend, he won’t face any serious minutes restrictions. It will be full-throttle right away, which should bode well not only for Wembanyama but also for Castle, whose only black mark on an otherwise impressive start has been leading the league in turnovers.
Playing off the ball is more natural for Castle now, and if he can focus more on scoring, those double-teams should be a little slower descending upon Wembanyama.
Then, of course, 29 coaching staffs in the league will look to adjust again.
And when they do?
Not stressing over it, Wembanyama will look to scale another level.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News