By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-12-12 18:21:10
多亏了我的好友迈克——一位在当地小有名气的球友，我才得以在周三晚上现场观看了马刺对阵湖人的2025年阿联酋航空NBA杯四分之一决赛。为此我不得不缺席了自己周三晚上的比赛，但我的主队能来这儿打一场阿联酋航空杯的比赛，机会能有几次呢？（就这么一次。）
亲临现场看球有一个被低估的好处，那就是你不用担心家里的比赛录像在结束前就中断了。周一晚上马刺对阵鹈鹕的比赛就发生了这种事，当时我正在看我们过去称之为“录像带延时播出”的比赛回放。那个中断时机真是糟心得恰到好处，主要是因为两队在第四节大概罚了100次球（非官方统计）。迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 在比赛还剩9.1秒时得分，帮助马刺以133-132领先。正如NBA球队几乎总会做的那样（我打球或执教那会儿可不这样），鹈鹕队立刻叫了暂停。不到三十秒，我的屏幕就一片漆黑，就像《黑道家族》的结局一样。直到现在，我都没看到那场马刺比赛的最后9.1秒。我也还没搞懂《黑道家族》的结局。（显然，马刺赢了，但这在律师口中属于“传闻证据”，因为我没有亲眼看到。）
如果鹈鹕在哈珀投篮命中后立刻发球入境，这一切本可以避免，而NBA球队也本应更频繁地这样做。（在波波维奇的执教下，马刺就经常这么干。）我执教的时候，如果比赛还剩6秒或更长时间，我们就会直接发球然后进攻。这通常比让对手利用“你的”暂停来布置他们的防守要好得多。对于那些在家里计时的朋友们，9.1秒在技术上是“多于”6秒规则的。
讽刺的是，鹈鹕在比赛剩9.1秒叫了暂停后的战术，似乎和他们在哈珀投进反超一球后直接发边线球所能执行的战术没什么两样。以下是来自 PTR撰稿人玛丽莲·杜宾斯基 的描述：
在哈珀命中一记高难度上篮，帮助马刺在比赛还剩9秒时取得一分领先后，（詹姆斯）博雷戈 (James Borrego) 布置了一个堪称史上最糟糕的战术。他们将球长传回后场，然后让何塞·阿尔瓦拉多 (Jose Alvarado) 持球冲刺全场。他几乎获得了一个无人防守的上篮机会，但他却把球传回给了弧顶无人看防的（德里克）奎恩 (Derik Queen)。问题在哪？奎恩职业生涯的三分命中率只有11%，这球也应声砸在了篮筐前沿。
我宁愿相信，我的球队会更聪明，不会把决定胜负的一球传给那个命中率只有11%的家伙。而且，我那11%命中率的球员也该知道，自己不应该待在三分线外要球。
关于对阵鹈鹕的比赛还有一件事。看球时我意识到，新奥尔良这座城市拥有两支全美最差的职业体育队伍。鹈鹕队目前战绩4胜22负（西部垫底），场均净负超过10分。新奥尔良的另一支“职业”球队——圣徒队，战绩3胜10负，在他们的分区垫底。令人震惊的是，这两支球队都不是各自联盟的战绩最差者，因为他们居然都在最近的比赛中赢了球——鹈鹕昨晚战胜了开拓者，而圣徒队则在周日击败了坦帕湾。
这可是件大事，以至于圣徒队的四分卫（一个叫泰勒·舒夫的家伙）在马刺比赛的本地转播中接受了现场采访。泰勒——抱歉，是泰勒——看起来是个好人，但在看到采访前，就算他站在我面前我也认不出来。泰勒的注册身高是6英尺5英寸（约1米96），所以我可能会把他当成一个射程不错的NBA得分后卫，而不是NFL的首发四分卫。但他在采访前一天圣徒队战胜坦帕湾的比赛中确实是首发四分卫——他对圣徒队那场罕见的胜利依旧兴奋不已。（请注意，在谈论新奥尔良时，我巧妙地用到了“爵士（jazz）”这个梗。）
好了，别再纠结那场与NBA底层球队的比赛了。让我们来谈谈锦标赛。虽然我最初对这个在12月就结束的季中锦标赛持怀疑态度，但我现在已经接受了这个概念，因为我认为球员们很在乎它。球员们似乎将阿联酋航空杯看作是与长达82场常规赛的鏖战中普通比赛不同的东西。对于那些不能每场都去的球迷来说，他们到场的每一场比赛都是特别的。但我不确定球员们是否也有同样的感觉。
又一场比赛，在又一个城市，经过又一次深夜航班，这一切会变得令人厌倦。但如果加上那些花里胡哨的球场、一次可能的拉斯维加斯之旅以及冠军球队每位球员50万美元的奖金呢？是的，这无疑提升了风险和激情。而对于像马刺这样已经好几年没有体验过NBA季后赛强度的球队来说，即便是这种准季后赛级别的季中锦标赛强度，也只会有好处。一年后，我们还会记得谁是2025年阿联酋航空杯的冠军吗？或许不会，但在此刻，在当下，它确实……有点意义。
比赛当天清晨，我骑车锻炼时，我的Apple Watch上弹出了朋友TD（不，不是蒂姆·邓肯）发来的短信：“为文班感到遗憾”。哇，这听起来太不祥了。难道他在康复期间受了更重的伤？或者更糟？结果TD只是说他为维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 将缺席对阵湖人的比赛感到惋惜。相比我飞奔回家拿手机时脑海里闪过的各种可能性，这已经算是个好消息了。虽然不如文班亚马能上场那么好。
事实证明，马刺让文班亚马缺席了对湖人的比赛，或许是因为他们觉得就算没有他也能击败湖人。拉斯维加斯的博彩公司可不这么认为，他们将主场作战的湖人列为4.5分的优势方，对手是一支缺少了维克托且刚刚险胜弱旅鹈鹕的马刺队。FanDuel甚至投放了一则广告，其中比尔·西蒙斯 (Bill Simmons) 说：“我无法想象没有文班的马刺能击败湖人”。剧透一下——马刺不仅赢下了盘口，比尔也亲眼看到了没有文班的马刺击败了湖人。
每当我在洛杉矶看马刺的比赛时，我都会特别留意其他的马刺球迷。也许是因为这场比赛不在常规的NBA赛程中，这是我见过的马刺球迷比例最低的一次，无论是在场外还是场内。不过，我确实看到一个可爱的3岁小女孩，穿着文班亚马的球衣，凝视着那座为纪念已故的科比与吉安娜·布莱恩特而立的感人雕像。是的，我知道我本该也给那个“3岁版文班亚马”拍张照，但她跑得太快了。
我猜大多数读到这篇文章的读者，无论是在洛杉矶还是圣安东尼奥，要么已经看了比赛，要么已经读了相关报道，所以这不会是一篇比赛回顾。但我会从一个坐在靠近场边的绝佳位置的观众视角，提一些亮点。众所周知，马刺在第二节建立了不错的领先优势。然而，当勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James) 仿佛梦回2013年，迎着卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 完成一记势大力沉的隔人暴扣时，领先优势被缩小到了10分。那一扣就发生在我们眼前，时间是还剩56秒，分差缩小到8分。
勒布朗·詹姆斯隔扣卢克·科内特（全角度回放） pic.twitter.com/3E88rFE5Rv
— The FBI Report (@ FBI_report) December 11, 2025
随着马刺开始主导比赛，球馆内的音量本已相当低，但瞬间从3飙升到10。当勒布朗接着在另一端封盖了德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 的投篮时，音量直接升到了11。随后马库斯·斯马特 (Marcus Smart) 助攻切入篮下的奥斯汀·里夫斯 (Austin Reaves)，噪音水平达到了12——直到科内特（几秒前刚被隔扣、场上速度最慢的球员）跑了整场，封盖了里夫斯的投篮。噪音水平降到了6，当福克斯在转换进攻中得分后，又降到了郁闷的4，而当哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 抢断了卢卡一次懒散的传球并完成扣篮时，半场仅剩13秒，现场变得更加沉闷，只剩下喃喃低语的2。（我没能找到科内特盖帽后整个过程的视频，但可以看看比赛加长集锦的9:35到10:08部分。）
这球看得我直接从沙发上跳了起来。
勒布朗这球太疯狂了。 pic.twitter.com/2Q6KGtKQYd
— Jason Page (@ TheBackPage) December 11, 2025
经历了这一切之后，当里夫斯接到传球时可能只有6分的领先优势，到半场结束时变成了12分。我对我那不开心的湖人球迷朋友迈克说，如果马刺能守住胜利，科内特的那个盖帽将是本场最佳一球。而马刺也确实做到了，下半场开局一波6-0，将领先优势扩大到18分。
从迈克的绝佳座位上得到的另一个观察是：放眼场上，我们可以看到湖人在防守几乎每一个马刺球员时都被迫陷入了糟糕的对位。由于湖人的首发阵容中没有真正的控球后卫，里夫斯成了牺牲品，被派去防守速度快得多的福克斯。勒布朗则经常对位另一名后卫，不是斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 就是哈珀。相关消息是，卡斯尔得了30分，哈珀得了13分，其中很多得分都是通过突破防守他们的湖人球员完成的。我还没提卢卡·东契奇 (Luka Doncic) 对位德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 的情况，也没提马刺会通过一些掩护来换掉一个移动缓慢的湖人防守者，从而形成对位卢卡的机会。湖人首发阵容里（防守端）基本上是三名大前锋、一名分卫（里夫斯）和某个中锋。结果，马刺最终有7人得分上双，瓦塞尔也只差一球，得到8分。
马刺的阵容深度也意味着这些天赋异禀、速度飞快的年轻球员可以在攻防两端时刻保持全速冲刺。马刺队中没有球员出场时间超过33分钟，有八名球员出场超过22分钟。而移动更慢的湖人队则让卢卡和里夫斯打了40多分钟，40岁的勒布朗打了36分钟——比21岁的斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的27分钟还要多。或许是巧合，卡斯尔在场时每分钟得分超过1分，而勒布朗则在36分钟里得到19分。
我已经有一段时间没写“趣味数据单解读”系列了，但这场比赛的数据单简直是在呼唤我至少写个简短版。整场比赛，湖人和马刺都命中了43球，命中率分别为49%和50%。马刺三分球38投17中，湖人37投16中，命中率分别为45%和43%。马刺有9个进攻篮板，湖人8个，马刺的失误只比湖人少一次。听起来比赛应该会胶着到最后时刻，对吧？那缺少的关键数据是什么？罚球。马刺比湖人多获得了13次罚球，并多命中了其中的12次，最终赢了13分。为什么马刺能获得这么多额外的罚球？因为湖人无法阻止速度更快的马刺队冲击篮筐，而这些突破很多都造成了湖人犯规，每次都换来两次罚球（或者一次罚球完成“and-one”）。而马刺的很多犯规都是非投篮犯规，比如挤过掩护时造成的犯规。
在一次暂停期间，马刺以118-99领先，比赛还剩大约7分钟，一群湖人球迷决定提前离场以避开拥堵。那些提前离开的人错过了一波由马库斯·斯马特三分开火（我从未写过这样的句子）引领的小高潮，但那波反击很快就熄火了。当卡斯尔的三分球在比赛还剩1分41秒时将领先优势重新拉回到14分后，迈克也决定撤了。而我的PTR合同要求我必须待到最后。不过就算没有合同我也会留下。随后，我得以穿过被不开心的湖人球迷包围的走廊，自豪地成为唯一一个穿着我那件时髦的马刺队半拉链外套和一顶在圣安东尼奥机场买的马刺队帽子的人。
在所有这些人中，只有我为比赛结果感到高兴。这种感觉，真好。
我决定不去想马刺刚刚赢得了对阵24胜1负的OKC雷霆的权利，后者在他们的四分之一决赛中狂胜了50分。两天后，我仍在努力不去想周六的比赛。那场比赛，我们恐怕非得有文班不可了。
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：Watching the Spurs emerge victorious from the Lakers’ Den
Watching the Spurs emerge victorious from the Lakers’ Den
Thanks to my buddy Mike, a fellow hooper of some local renown, I was able to attend the Spurs’ 2025 Emirates NBA Cup quarterfinal game against the Lakers Wednesday night. I was forced to miss my own Wednesday night game, but how often is my team in town for an Emirates Cup Game? (Once.)
One underrated benefit of attending games live and in person is you don’t have to worry about your home recording of the game running out before the end of the game. That happened on Monday night for the Spurs game against the Pelicans which I watched on what we used to call “tape-delay”. The timing was amazing, in a bad way, largely because both teams shot about 100 free throws in the fourth quarter (stats not official). Dylan Harper scored with 9.1 seconds left to put the Spurs up 133-132. As NBA teams almost always do (we did not when I was playing or coaching), the Pelicans immediately took a time-out. Within thirty seconds, my screen went black like the ending of The Sopranos. I still have not seen the last 9.1 seconds of that Spurs game. I also have not figured out the ending of The Sopranos. (Apparently, the Spurs won, but that is what lawyers call “hearsay” because I did not see it myself.)
All that could have been avoided had the Pelicans immediately in-bounded the ball after Harper’s basket, something NBA teams should do much more often than they do. (Under Pop, the Spurs often did.) When I coached, we would take the ball out and go if there were 6 seconds or more on the clock. That is often better than going against a team that uses “your” time-out to set up their own defense. For those of you scoring at home, 9.1 seconds is technically “more” than the 6 seconds rule.
Ironically, it appears that the Pelicans’ play after the time-out with 9.1 seconds left was virtually the same as they could have done if they simply took the ball out-of-bounds after Harper’s go-ahead basket. This is the description from PTR’s Marilyn Dubinski:
After Harper hit an acrobatic layup to give the Spurs a one point lead with 9 seconds left, (James) Borrego drew up about the worst play imaginable. They threw the ball way back into the backcourt, then had Jose Alvarado sprint down the court with the ball. He almost had an open lay-up but threw it back out to (Derik) Queen for an open three at the top of the arc. The problem? Queen is shooting 11% from three for his career, and it clunked off the front of the rim.
I would like to think that my teams would know better than to pass the ball to the 11% guy to attempt the winning basket. And that my 11% guy would know better than to be at the three-point line calling for the ball.
One other thing about the Pelicans game. While I was watching, I realized that New Orleans is stuck with two of the worst professional sports teams in the country. The Pelicans are now 4-22 (the worst in the West), and are being outscored by more than 10 points per game. The other New Orleans “professional” team, the Saints, are 3-10, in last place in their division. Shockingly, neither have the worst record in their respective leagues because they somehow both won their most recent games — Pelicans over the Trail Blazers last night, and the Saints beat Tampa Bay on Sunday.
That was such a big deal that the Saints quarterback (some guy named Tyler Shough) gave a live interview during the game on the local broadcast of the Spurs game. Taylor — sorry, Tyler — seems like a nice guy, but before I saw the interview, I would not have recognized him if he stood directly in front of me. Tyler is listed at 6’5”, so I would have pegged him as an NBA shooting guard with good range, not a starting NFL quarterback. But he was a starting QB in the Saints win over Tampa Bay the day before the interview – and he was still very jazzed about the rare Saints win. (Please note the clever “jazz” reference while talking about New Orleans.)
Enough rehashing the game against the dregs of the NBA hierarchy. Let’s talk about the Cup. While I was initially skeptical about an in-season tournament which ends in December, I have come around on the concept because I think the players care about it. The players appear to see the Emirates Cup as something different than a normal game during the 82-game slog of an NBA regular season game. For fans who don’t get to go to every game, each game those fans attend is something special. I am not sure the players feel the same.
Another game in another city after another late-night plane ride can become tiresome. But throw in the funky courts, a possible trip to Vegas and $500,000 to each playeron the winning team? Yeah, that raises the stakes and the excitement. And for a team like the Spurs, which hasn’t lived through the intensity of the NBA playoffs for several years, even the pseudo-playoff intensity of this weird in-season tournament can only be a good thing. Will we remember who won the 2025 Emirates Cup a year from now? Perhaps not, but for the moment and in the moment, it does mean…something.
While on an early morning bike ride the morning of the game, my Apple Watch flashed a text from my friend TD (no, not Tim Duncan): “Sorry about Wemby”. Wow, that sounded ominous. Had he suffered a more serious injury while rehabbing? Or something worse? It turns out that TD was just saying he was sorry Victor Wembanyama would not be playing against the Lakers. Compared to the alternatives I had imagined as I raced home to my cell phone, that was good news. Though not as good as if Victor would have played.
And it turns out the Spurs held Victor out of the Lakers game, perhaps because they didn’t think he would be necessary to beat the Lakers. Vegas disagreed, making the Lakers 4.5 point favorites, playing at home against a Victor-less Spurs team that had just barely beaten the woeful Pelicans. FanDuel ran an ad in which Bill Simmons said, “I can’t see the Spurs without Wemby beating the Lakers”. Spoiler alert – the Spurs beat the Vegas spread and Bill saw the Spurs without Wemby beat the Lakers.
Whenever I go to a Spurs game in Los Angeles, I keep a special eye out for other Spurs fans. Perhaps because this game was not on the normal NBA schedule, this was the lowest percentage of Spurs fans I have seen, both outside and inside the arena. Though I did see a darling 3-year old girl in a Wembanyama jersey looking at this very moving statue of the late Kobe and Giana Bryant. Yes, I know I should have also taken a picture of 3-year Wembanyama, but she was moving too fast.
I assume that most of you reading this, whether in LA or San Antonio, either saw the game or read about it already, so this will not be a game recap. But I will mention some highlights from the vantage of someone sitting in good seats close to the floor. As everyone knows, the Spurs built a good lead in the second quarter. However, that lead was down to ten when LeBron James had a flashback to 2013 LeBron and dunked all over Luke Kornet. That dunk was right in front of us with 56 seconds, cutting the lead to eight.
LeBron James dunks all over Luke Kornet (ALL ANGLES) pic.twitter.com/3E88rFE5Rv
— The FBI Report (@ FBI_report) December 11, 2025
The volume in the arena, which had been pretty low as the Spurs began dominating the game, suddenly went from a 3 to a 10. When LeBron then blocked a shot by De’Aaron Fox at the other end, the volume went to 11. Marcus Smart then hit Austin Reaves cutting to the basket and the noise level went to 12 – until Kornet (who had just been dunked on seconds earlier and the slowest guy on the floor) ran the length of the floor to block Reaves’ shot. The noise level went down to a 6, and then back to a sullen 4 when Fox scored in transition, and to even more sullen and muttering 2 when Harrison Barnes stole a lazy Luka pass and then dunked with 13 seconds left in the half. (I couldn’t find a a video of the entire sequence past Kornet’s block, but check out the extended highlights from the 9:35 to 10:08 mark.)
This got me up off the couch.
Insanity from LeBron. pic.twitter.com/2Q6KGtKQYd
— Jason Page (@ TheBackPage) December 11, 2025
After all that, the lead had gone from a possible 6 when Reaves got the pass to 12 when the half ended. I told my unhappy Laker fan Mike that the Kornet block would be the play of the game if the Spurs held on to win, which they essentially did with an 6-0 run to start the second half, pushing the lead to 18.
Another observation from Mike’s good seats: looking out onto the floor, we could see that the Lakers were forced into bad defensive match-ups on virtually every Spurs player. Because the Lakers’ starters don’t include a true point guard, Reaves was the sacrificial lamb asked to guard the much faster Fox. LeBron was often matched on the other guard, either Castle or Harper. In related news, Castle scored 30, and Harper scored 13, many on drives past whichever Laker was trying to stop those drives. And I haven’t even mentioned Luka Doncic matched up on Devin Vassell, or the fact that the Spurs would set some screens to trade in one slow Laker defender to get a Luka match-up. The Lakers essentially start three power forwards (on defense), an off-guard (Reaves) and some center. As a result, the Spurs wound up with 7 players in double figures, with Vassell just a basket away with 8 points.
The Spurs’ depth also meant that these talented young fast players could go full speed all the time, on both offense and defense. No Spur played more than 33 minutes, and eight played more than 22. The slower Lakers played Luka and Reaves 40+ minutes, while 40-year old Lebron played 36 minutes – more than the 27 minutes played by 21-year old Stephon Castle. Coincidentally perhaps, Castle scored more than a point a minute while on the floor, while Lebron scored 19 in his 36 minutes.
I haven’t done a Fun with Box Scores edition for a while, but the box score for this one calls out for at least a short edition. For the game, the Lakers and Spurs both made 43 shots, on 49% and 50% shooting. The Spurs went 17-38 from three, the Lakers 16-37, 45% to 43%. The Spurs had 9 offensive rebounds, the Lakers 8, and the Spurs had only one less turnover. Sounds like the game should have gone down to the wire, right? What is the missing stat? Free throws. The Spurs took 13 more free throws, made 12 of those extra free throws, and won by 13 points. Why did the Spurs get all those extra free throws? The Lakers could not stop the faster team from getting to the rim, and many of those drives led to Laker fouls and two free throws each time (or one free throw to complete an and-one). Many of the Spurs fouls were non-shooting fouls, such as fighting through screens.
A bunch of Lakers fans decided to beat the traffic and vacated the arena with about 7 minutes left during a time-out with the Spurs up 118-99. Those who made the early departure missed a mini-run fueled by Marcus Smart lighting it up from three (words I have never before written), but that rally sputtered out, and Mike decided to also vacate after Castle’s three-pointer put the lead back to 14 with 1:41 left. My PTR contract required me to stay to the end. I would have stayed anyway. I was then able to walk through the hallways surrounded by unhappy Lakers fans, proudly being the only one wearing my stylish Spurs quarter-zip and a Spurs hat purchased at the San Antonio airport.
Among all those people, I was the only one happy with the game’s outcome. And it felt good.
I decided not to think about the fact that the Spurs had just won the right to play the 24-1 OKC Thunder, who won their quarterfinal game by 50 points. Two days later, I am still trying not to think about Saturday’s game. We may just need Victor for that one.
By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock