By Jeje Gomez | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-11-29 22:47:08
马刺在周五取得了一场关键胜利。他们不仅击败了冠军争夺者掘金，更是在赢得“死亡之组”后，成功锁定了阿联酋航空NBA杯淘汰赛的席位。这是一场伟大的胜利，涌现出了多位功臣，其中德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 和朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 都打出了职业生涯最佳表现之一。
尽管进攻是马刺取胜的主要原因——毕竟比分是139-136——但圣安东尼奥做到了一件过去几个赛季里没有多少球队能完成的事：迫使尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokic) 打出了一场低于他个人水准的比赛。
这个说法听起来可能有些荒谬，因为“小丑”最终还是以超高效率贡献了21分、9个篮板和10次助攻，但他是在马刺所希望的节奏下拿到这些数据的，并且在比赛中任何时刻都未能展现出他通常所具有的统治力。让我们来看看圣安东尼奥是如何做到这一点的。
比赛计划：将约基奇变为传球手，而非得分手
比赛计划很简单。要完全压制约基奇是不可能的，所以你必须“两害相权取其轻”。他既是顶级的得分手，也是顶级的组织者，你最多只能尝试在其中一个方面限制他。考虑到上赛季两次对阵马刺时，他场均能得到43.5分，主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 希望专注于限制他比赛中的得分方面，这是完全合乎逻辑的。
为了实现这一目标，马刺将大量的防守注意力集中在约基奇身上，即使这意味着放任贾马尔·穆雷 (Jamal Murray) 得分，或者让他们的角色球员获得空位机会。比赛初期，圣安东尼奥曾尝试用几种不同的防守策略来对付约基奇，但比赛的大部分时间里，他们都坚持使用同一种策略。
马刺派上一名身材较小的球员对他进行绕前防守，或者就是通过身体对抗让他难以接球。然后，当他一有动作时，立即派出第二名防守者进行包夹，或者让通常防守斯潘塞·琼斯 (Spencer Jones) 或其他投射较弱球员的中锋，闪击到禁区，同时在挡拆中对弱侧进行区域联防。
每当约基奇单挑一名防守者时，他都能得分。但银黑军团始终如一地以极具侵略性的方式展现协防，并在其他时候收缩禁区，确保他极少获得这样的机会。结果，约基奇全场只出手10次，获得8次罚球，虽然得分效率很高，但并未主宰比赛。
奏效的险棋
马刺有一个可靠的基本计划，但它之所以能如此奏效，是因为他们的三步险棋都成功了：
- 他们相信约基奇与生俱来的无私会让他明白马刺的意图，并接受自己需要作为组织者来造成杀伤，而不是强行出手。这个人曾多次表示，他更喜欢送出助攻而不是得分，因为“助攻能让两个人快乐。”他也知道自己是当今世上最好的传球手，所以他可能认为自己能把事情搞定。一个更具侵略性的约基奇可能会造成更大的破坏。
- 马刺笃信裁判不可能吹罚每一次犯规。他们对约基奇的身体对抗极其激烈，杰里米·索汉 (Jeremy Sochan) 和凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 在大多数防守他的回合中，几乎都对他有数次犯规动作。索汉陷入了犯规麻烦，但裁判允许的身体对抗尺度就此定下。由于他们早早地展现出侵略性和身体对抗，圣安东尼奥在比赛末段也从掘金其他球员身上的一些漏判中获益。约基奇看起来对裁判感到非常沮丧。
- 他们很可能知道，大卫·阿德尔曼 (David Adelman) 作为一名聪明的教练，会试图做出调整，但这种调整恰恰落入了所谓的“索汉陷阱”。由于掘金知道只要约基奇参与进攻，马刺就会上包夹，于是他们让由马刺中锋防守的斯潘塞·琼斯去为穆雷做掩护。这正是过去当对手用小个球员防守维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 时，圣安东尼奥有时会让索汉做的事情。问题在于，虽然这位前锋通常能打出不错的比赛，但中锋却被降格为一个无球角色。对于约基奇这样的球员来说，这绝不是你想要的局面。他在第三节零次出手，而琼斯则有六次。
坏消息：这个计划可能无法复制
尽管马刺有一个强大而清晰的比赛计划，并且一些他们无法控制的因素也朝着有利的方向发展，但最终也只赢了三分。如果掘金投进了一些空位球，他们本可以轻易取胜。此外，他们还缺少了两名首发球员——阿隆·戈登 (Aaron Gordon) 和克里斯蒂安·布劳恩 (Christian Braun)，这两位球员不能像斯潘塞·琼斯、纳吉·马绍尔 (Naji Marshall) 和佩顿·沃特森 (Peyton Watson) 那样被频繁放空，而且他们更懂得如何围绕约基奇打球。
好消息是马刺赢下了这场比赛，这让他们得以在阿联酋航空NBA杯中晋级，并且直到三月份才会再次面对约基奇和丹佛。米奇·约翰逊将有时间思考调整方案，而希望届时圣安东尼奥能阵容齐整，准备好再次战胜这位世界最佳球员。
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：How the Spurs slowed down Nikola Jokic to beat the Denver Nuggets
How the Spurs slowed down Nikola Jokic to beat the Denver Nuggets
The Spurs secured a major win on Friday. They not only beat the Nuggets, a title contender, but also clinched a spot in the knockout stage of the Emirates NBA Cup by winning the “group of death.” It was a major victory that had several heroes, with Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie having some of the best nights of their careers.
While offense was the main reason for their triumph — it was a 139-136 win after all — San Antonio did something not many teams have accomplished in the past few seasons: force Nikola Jokic into a subpar game for his standards.
It might seem silly to make that claim, since the Joker finished with an ultra-efficient 21 points to go with nine boards and 10 assists, but he got there by playing the way the Spurs wanted him to, and at no point was he the dominant force he normally is. Let’s take a look at how San Antonio managed that.
The plan: turn Jokic into a passer and not a scorer
The game plan was simple. It’s impossible to neutralize Jokic, so you have to pick your poison. He’s an elite scorer and an elite playmaker for others, and at most, you can try to limit him on one of those two areas. Considering he averaged 43.5 points in two matchups against the Spurs last season, it made sense for Mitch Johnson to want to focus on taking the scoring aspect of his game away.
To do so, the Spurs focused a lot of defensive attention on Jokic, even if it meant letting Jamal Murray score and their role players get open looks. San Antonio threw some different looks Jokic’s way early, but settled on one strategy for most of the game.
The Spurs put a smaller player on him to front him or just be physical with him to make the catch difficult. Then immediately sent a second defender when he made a move and doubled or had the center, which typically guarded Spencer Jones or whoever was a weak shooter, flash to the paint while they zoned up on the weak side on pick and rolls.
Whenever Joker faced just one defender, he scored. But the Silver and Black were consistent in making sure he rarely had those opportunities by showing help in an extremely aggressive way, while packing the paint in others. As a result, Jokic attempted just 10 shots and took eight free throws, having an efficient scoring night but not dominating.
The gambits that paid off
The Spurs had a solid basic plan, but the reason it worked as well as it did is that three of their gambits paid off:
- They trusted that Jokic’s innate selflessness would lead him to understand what the Spurs were trying to do, but to accept that he needed to make his damage as a playmaker instead of trying to force up shots. This is a man who has repeatedly said he prefers to dish out an assist than score because “assists make two people happy.” He also knows he’s the best passer alive, so he probably thought he could make things work. A more aggressive Jokic probably does more damage.
- The Spurs relied on the belief that officials can’t call every foul. They were extremely physical with Jokic, with Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson essentially fouling him several times on most of the possessions they guarded him. Sochan got in foul trouble, but a baseline of allowed physicality was set. San Antonio also benefited from bad no-calls on other Nuggets late because of how aggressive and physical they were earlier. Jokic looked frustrated with the officials.
- They likely knew that David Adelman, being a smart coach, would try to adjust, but that adjustment would be to fall for what can be called the Sochan Trap. Since the Nuggets knew the Spurs would bring two whenever Jokic was involved, they used Spencer Jones, who was guarded by the center, as a screener for Murray. It’s what San Antonio used to do with Sochan at times when opponents put smaller guys on Victor Wembanyama. The problem is, while the forward normally has a good game, the center is relegated to an off-ball role. With a player like Jokic, that’s not what you want. He had zero field goal attempts in the third quarter, while Jones had six.
The bad news: the plan might not be replicable
Despite the Spurs having a strong and clear game plan and a few things that they couldn’t control going their way, it was just a three-point win in the end. The Nuggets could have easily prevailed if some of the open looks they had had gone in. They were also missing two starters, Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun, who cannot be left open as often as players like Spencer Jones, Naji Marshall, and Peyton Watson, and who understand how to play off Jokic.
The good news is the Spurs won this game, which lets them advance in the Emirates NBA Cup and will not face Jokic and Denver again until March. Mitch Johnson will have time to think of adjustments and hopefully, San Antonio will be at full strength by then, ready to get another victory over the best player in the world.
By Jeje Gomez, via Pounding The Rock