By Mark Barrington | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-11-29 05:21:31
NBA季中锦标赛让各支球队在赛季初期就体验到了季后赛级别的强度，而今晚在丹佛，马刺队直面挑战，战胜了掘金队。尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokic) 的得分表现虽不及平常，但他仍以一次三双在其他方面全方位地影响着比赛，他帮助贾马尔·穆雷 (Jamal Murray) 砍下32分，卡姆·约翰逊 (Cam Johnson) 得到28分。面对掘金队的得分狂潮，马刺队凭借德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 爆发砍下的35分和朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 的25分，最终顶住了压力。德阿龙 (DeAaron) 的得分虽不如往常，但他送出的12次助攻为球队取胜立下了汗马功劳。马刺全场仅有8次失误，而掘金则高达16次，这帮助银黑军团克服了44-35的篮板劣势。马刺在第三节一度落后18分，但他们奋起直追，在进入第四节时几乎将比分扳平。尽管双方都有一些关键球员缺阵，但马刺能在缺少队内最佳球员和本赛季攻防两端关键人物斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 的情况下，于丹佛客场击败掘金，这依然是一项了不起的成就。
赛场观察
- 当我报名撰写这篇战报时，我没意识到比赛时间和德州大学对德州农工大学的橄榄球赛有冲突。我打算一边写战报，一边试着同时关注两场比赛。让我们看看结果会怎样吧。各位，今晚的战报可能会有点乱，但这大概是长角牛队本赛季最重要的一场比赛，我不想完全错过。加油，长角牛队！那场比赛终于在马刺比赛的第四节结束了，所以我还有些时间来补上进度……
- 丹佛季中锦标赛球场的粉红色/蔓越莓色调真的很难看。今年大多数球场的设计都比往年有很大进步，但这块场地是个例外。虽然还不至于像明尼苏达那块怪异的绿色地板那么糟糕，但也够差了。
- 德文·瓦塞尔开场手感火热，包办了马刺队前12分中的7分。
- 丹尼·格林 (Danny Green) 在解说席上的表现越来越好了。当比赛节奏快到他来不及解说时，他有时会有点含糊不清，但他正开始跟上节奏并建立自信。他与雅各布·托比 (Jacob Tobey) 的化学反应很不错。
- 索汉最终出任替补中锋，并且大部分时间都在防守约基奇。马刺的策略是安排一些包夹来帮助他，结果并没有你想象的那么糟糕。约基奇在一些时段确实受到了干扰，他的进攻效率至少降低了20%。这可是科学。
- 林迪·沃特斯三世 (Lindy Waters III) 很早就获得了上场机会并命中一记三分。很高兴看到他得到比赛时间。随着马刺需要让主力球员轮休，他将在未来成为一名重要的贡献者。
- 凭借节末的一波17-3的攻击波，马刺在最后几分钟取得领先，以41-33结束第一节。
- 掘金队的身材优势在第二节初给马刺带来了麻烦，他们依靠二次进攻得分抹平了分差，其中齐克·纳吉 (Zeke Nnaji) 为丹佛队贡献了高质量的上场时间。
- 很高兴能看到小蒂姆·哈达威 (Tim Hardaway) 和罗恩·哈珀 (Ron Harper) 的孩子们同场竞技。在那个男人真刀真枪、犯规异常凶狠的旧时代，他们的父亲可是有过无数次正面交锋。
- 琼纳斯·瓦兰丘纳斯 (Jonas Valanciunas) 在内线肉搏时真的很会造犯规。看起来只是球员在争抢位置，但琼纳斯却从不被吹罚。说实话，这简直有点魔力。
- 马刺的防守在第二节开始出现裂痕，球员们陷入了犯规麻烦和糟糕的对位。二次进攻得分对银黑军团造成了巨大伤害，而掘金队则将马刺的失误转化为快攻得分，打出一波15-0的高潮，在第二节末段首次取得两位数的领先。半场结束前一秒，穆雷造成了科内特 (Kornet) 的犯规，他罚球命中后，掘金以74-59领先进入下半场。
- 贾马尔·穆雷和掘金队其他球员在第三节手感集体爆发，马刺之所以能让比赛没有失控，全靠德文·瓦塞尔进入了“无我之境”，加上朱利安·尚帕尼一记及时的四分打，马刺在第三节过半时勉强跟上了节奏……只是勉强。随着时间推移，他们顶住了丹佛队最猛烈的一波攻势并幸存下来，甚至开始蚕食分差，并在穆雷投中节末压哨三分前短暂地取得过领先。马刺以一波20-6的攻势结束本节，以103-104落后一分进入末节决战。
- 第四节是一场艰苦的拉锯战，小蒂姆·哈达威 (Tim Hardaway Jr.) 为掘金队化身火枪手。德文·瓦塞尔也带来了自己的火焰喷射器，他在本节末段命中关键投篮，并凭借两记三分球在比赛还剩不到一分钟时帮助马刺取得了6分的领先。最后一分钟成了马刺的罚球表演，他们稳稳命中罚球，最终以139-136获胜，期间掘金队命中了几记高难度三分，让比赛悬念迭起。
好了，NBA季中锦标赛的小组赛阶段就到此为止了。马刺队将于周日前往明尼苏达对阵森林狼队，然后在周二回到主场迎战灰熊队。接下来的一周他们将再次踏上客场之旅，连续挑战三支球队，分别是魔术队、骑士队，以及12月8日对阵鹈鹕队——那天正好是我的生日。目前赛程表上看起来空闲的一周，是联盟为季中锦标赛淘汰赛预留的日期。马刺队将于12月10日（周三）参加四分之一决赛。如果他们赢下首场比赛，将于13日（周六）在拉斯维加斯参加第二轮比赛。半决赛的胜者将在12月16日（周二）进行一场额外的比赛[这场比赛结果不计入常规赛战绩]。到了12月17日，几乎所有人都会忘记这个锦标赛了，尤其是Pounding the Rock网站上那些从一开始就不喜欢这项赛事的“老古板”们。
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。
点击查看原文：San Antonio at Denver, Final Score: Spurs outlast the Nuggets and lock up West Group C with a 139—136 win
San Antonio at Denver, Final Score: Spurs outlast the Nuggets and lock up West Group C with a 139—136 win
The NBA Cup allows teams to experience playoff-level intensity early in the season and the Spurs rose to the occasion tonight against the Nuggets in Denver. Nikola Jokic had a below average night scoring the ball but impacted the game in every other way, with a triple double as he helped Jamal Murray to a 32 point game and Cam Johnson to 28. The Spurs overcame the scoring onslaught from the Nuggets with a 35 point outburst from Devin Vassell and 25 points from Julian Champagnie. DeAaron didn’t score as many points as he usually does, but he was instrumental to the win with 12 assists. The Spurs had only 8 turnovers and the Nuggets had 16, which helped the Silver and Black overcome a 44-35 rebounding deficit. The Spurs were down at one point in the third quarter by 18 points, and they fought back to almost even it up going into the fourth. Both teams were missing some key players, but it was still an impressive achievement for the Spurs to take a game from the Nuggets in Denver without their best player and Stephon Castle, who has been a key player on both ends of the court so far this season.
Observations
- When I signed up to write this recap, I didn’t realize that there was a schedule conflict with the Texas/Texas A&M football matchup. I’m going to try to follow both games while writing this recap. Let’s see how that turns out. It could be a pretty shambolic recap tonight, folks, but this is probably the biggest game of the season for the Horns, and I don’t want to miss it completely. Hook ‘em! That game finally wrapped up in the fourth quarter of the Spurs game, so I had some time to catch up …
- The pinkish/cranberry shade of the Denver NBA Cup floor is really hard to look at. Most of the floors this year have been big improvements over previous years, but this one isn’t. Not quite as bad as the weird green floor in Minnesota, but it’s bad.
- Devin Vassell started off the game hot, scoring 7 of the Spurs’ first 12.
- Danny Green is getting better in the announcing booth. He has a tendency to mumble a bit when the action is moving faster than he can call it, but he’s starting to catch up and gain confidence. He has good chemistry with Jacob Tobey.
- Sochan ended up as the backup center and was on Jokic much of the time. The Spurs scheme was to help him out with some double teams, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as you would expect. Jokic was bothered some of the time, and his offensive efficiency was reduced by at least 20%. It’s just science.
- Lindy Waters III got in the game early and hit a triple. It’s good to see him getting playing time. He’s going to be an important contributor going forward as the Spurs need to rest their top players.
- The Spurs led 41-33 at the end of one quarter, using a late 17-3 run to grab a lead in the last couple of minutes.
- The size of the Nuggets bothered the Spurs early in the second as they erased the deficit on second chance points with Zeke Nnaji giving quality minutes for Denver.
- It was nice to Tim Hardaway and Ron Harper’s kids play each other. Their dads had plenty of head to head battles in the old days when men were men and fouls really hurt a lot.
- Jonas Valanciunas really sells fouls well when he’s battling in the paint. It just looks like guys battling for postion, but Jonas is never called for it. It’s kind of magic, actually.
- The Spurs defense started to fray in the second quarter as the Spurs were drawn into fouls and bad matchups. Second choice points were damaging for the Silver and Black and the Nuggets got their first double digit lead late in the second as they converted turnovers into fast break points as they ripped off a 15-0 run to take a 13 point lead. The half ended as Murray drew a foul on Kornet with a second left, which gave the Nuggets a 74-59 lead at the half after he hit his free throws.
- Jamal Murray and the rest of the Nuggets got really hot in the third, and the Spurs were only able to keep the game from getting out of touch because Devin Vassell was unconscious, and with a timely four point play from Julian Champagnie, the Spurs were able to keep pace halfway through the quarter … barely. As the quarter wore on, they took Denver’s best shot and survived, and were actually cutting into the deficit, briefly taking the lead before Murray hitting a triple at the end of the quarter. The Spurs finished the quarter on a 20-6 run and trailed 103-104 going into the final frame.
- The fourth quarter was a hard-fought affair, and Tim Hardaway Jr. was a flamethrower for the Nuggets. Devin Vassell brought his own flamethrower as he hit clutch shots late in the quarter, and gave the Spurs a 6 point lead with just less than a minute left with a pair of triples. The last minute was a parade to the free throw line for the Spurs as they hit their foul shots and won 139-136, with the Nuggets making it interesting by hitting some difficult triples.
Well, that’s it for the group stage of the NBA Cup. The Spurs travel to Minnesota to play the Timberwolves on Sunday, then return home for a single home game against the Grizzlies on Tuesday. They go back on the road for three games in the next week, against the Magic, Cavs, and Pelicans on December 8, which happens to be my birthday. What currently looks like an open week in the schedule after that is the dates that the league is holding open until the NBA Cup knockout tournament is set. The Spurs will play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, December 10. If they win the first game, they will play in the second round on Saturday the 13th in Las Vegas. The winners of the semifinals will get an additional game [which won’t count in the standings] on Tuesday, December 16. On December 17, almost everybody will have forgotten about the Cup, especially the curmudgeon class at Pounding the Rock, who never liked it in the first place.
By Mark Barrington, via Pounding The Rock