By The Athletic NBA Staff | The Athletic, 2025-12-14 01:38:30
作者：Joe Vardon, James Edwards III, Darnell Mayberry, Josh Robbins
周六，伤愈复出的维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 仅登场21分钟，便带领圣安东尼奥马刺队以111-109击败俄克拉荷马城雷霆队，成功闯入NBA杯决赛。
在拉斯维加斯的T-Mobile球馆，现场绝大多数支持马刺的球迷向文班亚马高喊“MVP”，雷霆队则想尽办法也难以限制住他。尽管雷霆全力防守，这位身高7英尺4英寸的球星仍在第四节砍下了全场22分中的15分。
圣安东尼奥马刺队将在周二晚的冠军赛中对阵纽约尼克斯队。
“文班效应”名不虚传
当他在场时，球队净胜对手21分；当他不在场时，则净负19分。
你觉得文班亚马的重要性如何？
因小腿拉伤缺阵一个月后，文班的回归之战无疑没有让人失望。职业生涯首次（130场比赛中）替补出场，文班亚马在21分钟内贡献22分、9个篮板和2次封盖，但这仅仅是他影响力的一部分。为了控制文班的上场时间，并确保他在激烈的比赛末段能够登场，同时避免让他以不规律的模式打球，主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 让他坐满了整个第一节。
一旦他踏上球场，雷霆队不仅要避免在禁区挑战他，尝试在他头顶投射三分，马刺队的其他球员也随即提升了外线防守压力，给卫冕冠军制造了极大的麻烦。
本场比赛，马刺队共有四名球员得分超过20分，其中德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 得到全队最高的23分。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔和德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 与文班亚马一样，同样贡献了22分。
如果马刺队需要继续控制文班亚马的上场时间，并为周二可能出现的胶着冠军赛末段做好准备，再次让他替补出场或许是个不错的选择。总而言之，拥有文班在阵中时，马刺队的身高和速度给雷霆队带来的困扰超过了本赛季任何时候。— Joe Vardon
雷霆连胜纪录戛然而止
好吧，这结果确实出人意料。
仅就这一晚而言，面对另一端的文班亚马——这位堪称怪物、外星人、独角兽和超级英雄的球员，俄克拉荷马城雷霆队看起来竟如此平凡。雷霆队一度领先多达16分，但全场投篮命中率仅为41%，三分命中率更是低至24%……最终输掉了比赛……球队历史最长的16连胜纪录也就此终结。
此役之前，雷霆队战绩为24胜1负，净效率值高达17.2，而这一切还是在上赛季总决赛的首发阵容本赛季从未合体出场一分钟的情况下取得的。现在，主教练马克·戴格诺特 (Mark Daigneault) 该考虑一下阵容调整了（开个玩笑）。不过说真的，谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)、吕冈茨·多尔特 (Luguentz Dort)、杰伦·威廉姆斯 (Jalen Williams)、切特·霍姆格伦 (Chet Holmgren) 和以赛亚·哈尔滕施泰因 (Isaiah Hartenstein) 在周六的比赛前，本赛季确实从未同时登场过。哈尔滕施泰因从左小腿拉伤中恢复，本场出战20分钟，贡献10分和9个篮板。
吉尔杰斯-亚历山大三分球7投仅1中，并且有多记投篮因文班的防守威慑而受到干扰（卡斯尔也送给了他一记精彩的封盖）。多尔特在这个饱受伤病困扰的赛季里投篮手感挣扎，周六全场7投1中。
雷霆队现在的战绩比2015-16赛季那支冲击73胜的金州勇士队晚了一场失利。两支球队——当年的勇士和本赛季的雷霆——开局都取得了24胜1负，但金州勇士直到第31场比赛才输掉赛季第二场球。— Vardon
杰伦·布伦森在周六晚砍下40分，带领尼克斯队击败魔术队，挺进NBA杯决赛。(图片来源：Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
布伦森大爆发，尼克斯力克魔术闯入决赛
杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson) 延续了他的火热状态，连续第四场比赛得分突破30分。周六晚，他带领纽约尼克斯队在比赛末段拉开比分，以132-120击败奥兰多魔术队，晋级NBA杯半决赛。
布伦森全场27投16中，砍下赛季新高的40分。面对魔术队以身体对抗著称的强硬防守，他仅命中了两记三分球。卡尔-安东尼·唐斯 (Karl-Anthony Towns) 得到29分，OG·阿奴诺比 (OG Anunoby) 为尼克斯贡献24分，全队投出了赛季新高的61%的命中率。
在布伦森砍下40分的带领下，纽约队面对防守强悍的奥兰多队，得分超过了130分。
对纽约而言，比晋级NBA杯更重要的或许是，他们将本赛季与奥兰多魔术的交手战绩扳成了2-2平。如果两队常规赛结束时战绩相同，魔术队将不再拥有直接交锋战绩的优势。
这场胜利让纽约有机会向世界证明，他们不仅是东部真正的有力竞争者，同样也能争夺NBA总冠军——假设他们的决赛对手是联盟领头羊雷霆队。尼克斯本赛季还未与西部排名前五的球队交过手，而当他们对阵雷霆或马刺时，这一刻就将到来。
这场对决，尽管在激烈程度和重要性上远不及NBA总决赛，但它将让尼克斯球迷看到，这支身处普遍认为实力较弱的东部的顶尖球队之一，是否真的能在一个颇具分量的舞台上，与任何一支西部前五的强队一较高下。— James Edwards III，尼克斯跟队记者
魔术防线在尼克斯面前崩溃
这场半决赛的表现，并非魔术队所标榜的篮球风格。
主教练贾马尔·莫斯利 (Jamahl Mosley) 在赛前强调的许多重点事项，最终都未能实现。
奥兰多没能限制住布伦森，后者砍下40分，而球队最好的持球防守者杰伦·萨格斯 (Jalen Suggs) 因左髋酸痛，在近三节的时间里都步履蹒跚。奥兰多在上半场没能保护好防守篮板，让对手通过二次进攻得到12分。奥兰多也没能做到在不犯规的情况下完成有效防守，让纽约队获得了31次罚球机会并命中23球。
魔术队标志性的身体对抗又在哪里？比赛大部分时间里都消失不见了。
莫斯利的球队在转换进攻中效率颇高——当然，这是在他们少数能够打出快攻反击的情况下。要赶在对手防守落位前完成投篮，关键有两点：在防守端成功防下对手，以及在防守端迫使对手失误。奥兰多这两点都没怎么做到。纽约队投出了61%的命中率，并且全场只出现了12次失误。
因此，魔术队很难在篮下获得太多得分机会也就不足为奇了。他们想念球队最好的突破手之一，弗朗茨·瓦格纳 (Franz Wagner)，后者因上周末（巧合的是，对手也是尼克斯）遭遇的高位脚踝扭伤而缺阵。但更大的问题在于，魔术队无法完成防守——也就无法发起快攻。当然，在防守端，魔术队同样想念瓦格纳。
魔术队本场最高光的时刻出现在第三节的一波18-4的攻势中。那是他们的防守第一次看起来像往常一样。然而，这只是昙花一现。这一小段时间的表现体现了过去三个赛季在莫斯利治下魔术篮球的精神风貌和战术执行力，但它持续的时间实在太短了。— Josh Robbins，NBA撰稿人
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：NBA Cup takeaways: Spurs, Knicks set for final as Wembanyama, Brunson surge
NBA Cup takeaways: Spurs, Knicks set for final as Wembanyama, Brunson surge
By Joe Vardon, James Edwards III, Darnell Mayberry and Josh Robbins
In just 21 minutes on the court, a returning Victor Wembanyama pushed the San Antonio Spurs into the NBA Cup final with a 111-109 victory Saturday over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The overwhelmingly pro-Spurs crowd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas regailed Wembanyama with “MVP” chants as the Thunder struggled to keep him under control. Despite their efforts, the 7-foot-4 star managed to score 15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter.
San Antonio will now face the New York Knicks in Tuesday night’s championship game.
The Wemby effect is real
Twenty-one points better than the other team when he was on the court; 19 points worse when he wasn’t.
Think Wembanyama makes a difference?
Wemby’s return to the court after a month away due to a calf strain certainly didn’t disappoint. Coming off the bench for the first time in his career (130 games), Wembanyama’s 22 points, nine rebounds and two blocks in 21 minutes only begin to tell the tale of his impact. He sat out the entire first quarter so coach Mitch Johnson could manage Wemby’s minutes restriction and keep him available for the end of a tight game without playing him in irregular patterns.
Once he hit the court, not only did the Thunder have to avoid him in the paint and try to shoot 3s over him, but the rest of the Spurs cranked up their defensive pressure on the perimeter and really bothered the defending champs.
The Spurs had four 20-point scorers in the game, led by Devin Vassell’s 23 points. Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox joined Wembanyama with 22 points.
If the Spurs need to continue to manage Wembanyama’s minutes and have him ready for the end of a potentially close championship game on Tuesday, they would do well to bring him off the bench again. Overall, the size and speed the Spurs have with Wemby in the fold bothered the Thunder more so than at any point this season. — Joe Vardon
Thunder’s win streak peters out
Well, that was unexpected.
Oklahoma City, for one night and with perhaps the freakiest, alien, unicorn, superhero on the other side in Wembanyama, looked normal. The Thunder led by as many as 16 points but shot just 41 percent for the game and 24 percent from 3-point range … and lost … snapping the franchise’s all-time-best 16-game winning streak.
The Thunder entered play with a 24-1 record and a 17.2 net rating, without its starting lineup from last season’s NBA Finals having played a single minute together. Now Mark Daigneault is going to have to think about lineup changes (that’s a joke). But yeah, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein hadn’t played at all together this season until Saturday. Hartenstein returned from a strained calf to score 10 points with nine boards in 20 minutes.
Gilgeous-Alexander was 1 of 7 from 3-point range and had numerous shots changed by Wemby’s presence (Castle also had a nasty block on him, too). Dort has struggled to shoot in an injury-plagued season for him and was 1 of 7 from the field Saturday.
The Thunder are now a game off the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors’ pace to win 73 games. Both teams — the Warriors and this season’s Thunder — started 24-1, but Golden State didn’t lose its second game until game 31. — Vardon
Jalen Brunson dropped 40 points Saturday night to lead the Knicks past the Magic and into the NBA Cup final. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
Brunson erupts as Knicks outlast Magic to reach final
Jalen Brunson continued his torrid run, topping 30 points for the fourth straight game as the New York Knicks pulled away late to beat the Orlando Magic 132-120 on Saturday night in the NBA Cup semifinals.
Brunson scored a season-high 40 points, making 16 of 27 shots. He made just two 3-pointers against the Magic’s notoriously physical defense. Karl-Anthony Towns had 29 points, and OG Anunoby scored 24 for the Knicks, who shot a season-high 61 percent.
New York put up more than 130 points against a stingy Orlando defense on the back of a 40-ball from Brunson.
Potentially bigger than advancing in the NBA Cup, New York has evened the series record against Orlando at 2-2. If the teams were to finish the regular season with the same record, the Magic would no longer have the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The victory gives New York a chance to show the world that it’s not only a real contender in the East but also can contend for an NBA title, assuming its opponent ends up being the NBA-leading Thunder. The Knicks haven’t played a top-five team in the West yet this season and will do so when they take on either the Thunder or the Spurs.
The matchup, while not anywhere close to the intensity and importance of the NBA Finals, will give Knicks fans an idea if one of the best two teams in the lesser-regarded East can, in fact, be competitive with any of the top five teams in the West on a somewhat meaningful stage. — James Edwards III, Knicks beat writer
Magic defense buckles against Knicks
This semifinal performance wasn’t what the Magic regard as their brand of basketball.
Many of the items on their to-do list that coach Jamahl Mosley cited as priorities before tipoff went unfulfilled.
Orlando did not contain Brunson, who scored 40 points, as Jalen Suggs, Orlando’s best on-ball defender, hobbled for almost three quarters because of a sore left hip. Orlando did not protect its defensive glass during the first half, allowing 12 second-chance points through two quarters. And Orlando did not defend well without fouling, with New York going 23 of 31 from the free-throw line.
And where was the Magic’s trademark physicality? Absent for much of the game.
Mosley’s club was effective in transition — that is, on the rare occasions when it was able to rush forward in transition. Of course, there are two keys to getting shots up before an opponent sets its defense: getting stops on defense and forcing turnovers on defense. Orlando didn’t do much of either. New York made 61 percent of its shots and committed only 12 turnovers.
No wonder, then, that the Magic struggled to generate many scoring attempts at the rim. They missed one of their best drivers, Franz Wagner, who is sidelined by the high-ankle sprain he suffered last weekend, coincidentally against the Knicks. But the larger issue was that the Magic couldn’t generate stops — and then run. The Magic missed Wagner on defense, too.
The Magic’s best moments occurred during an 18-4 run in the third quarter. That was the first time their defense looked like its usual self. That was short-lived, however. That stretch typified the spirit and execution of Magic basketball over the last three seasons under Mosley, but it didn’t last long enough. — Josh Robbins, NBA writer
By The Athletic NBA Staff, via The Athletic