By Jared Weiss | The Athletic, 2025-12-26 11:00:49
俄克拉荷马城电 — NBA的联盟格局正在我们眼前悄然改变。赛程安排很少能创造出这样一个让局势瞬息万变的时刻。通常情况下，联盟需要一次伤病或一笔交易才能让事情发生根本性的转变。
但马刺在12天内三胜雷霆，这无疑说明了些什么。这仿佛是一轮漫长的季后赛预演，而其结论毋庸置疑：马刺已经准备好与卫冕冠军平起平坐，跻身联盟之巅。
“你不会在短时间内连续三次输给同一支球队，除非他们真的比你更强。”雷霆队球星谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) 说道。“所以我们必须变得更好。如果我们想实现最终目标，就必须审视自己，从上到下的每一个人都一样。”
马刺正在证明他们是当今NBA最好的球队。他们连续两场比赛在进入垃圾时间前就已锁定胜局，一场在自己的主场，另一场则是在俄克拉荷马城。他们拥有三名能高效组织48分钟进攻的后卫，而他们中没有一人是球队的最佳球员。维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 在小腿受伤后仍在执行出场时间限制，远未发挥出他的最佳水平。
“我们绝不会让某个人的天赋凌驾于集体之上，”在马刺以117-102赢得对阵雷霆的圣诞大战后，文班亚马说道。“这正是我们能击败像他们这样伟大球队的原因。”
圣安东尼奥并非因为几周的出色表现就站上了联盟之巅，而是因为自赛季开始以来，马刺从未停止成长，并且仍有巨大的进化空间。
不久前，雷霆还打出了NBA历史最佳开局。如今，经历这场 سخت仗之后，他们仅领先于圣安东尼奥的宿敌新势力2.5个胜场。
马刺为本赛季余下的比赛给篮球世界带来了一丝悬念，让人们感觉到，王座迎来了一位资历无可置疑的真正挑战者。尽管圣安东尼奥的崛起远超预期，但马刺的成功看起来是可持续的。
文班亚马因左小腿拉伤缺席了一个月，恰逢德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 迎来赛季首秀，这给了马刺一个寻找自身进攻体系定位的机会。文班亚马已经卓有成效地回归轮换阵容，且没有影响到这台运转良好的机器。其结果是，这支球队没有任何状态下滑的节点，没有任何让对手喘息反扑的空隙，即便对手是像雷霆这样稳定性的典范。
对于这一系列战胜联盟领头羊的意义，马刺队一直保持着相当一致的低调口吻。但在这种谦逊之前，是片刻的自我肯定。他们认识到，雷霆是通过稳定性和持久战来击败对手的。
但马刺恰恰是以其人之道还治其人之身，扭转了剧本。
“雷霆队不仅是赢球，更在于他们赢球的方式，他们就是能把对手磨垮，”周四砍下全场最高29分的福克斯说道。“能够顶住他们的攻势，顶住他们打出的一波流，然后再打出我们自己的攻击波，我认为这才是更令人印象深刻的部分，也是我们感到高兴的地方。”
在26分钟内得到19分和11个篮板的文班亚马解释说，马刺的打法核心就是针对对手的弱点。“关键在于要打在对方防守的痛处，”他说。
随着周四比赛的进行，文班亚马在这支球队当前版本中的角色开始清晰起来。
由福克斯、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 组成的控卫三人组，让文班亚马可以轻松地在进攻端退居二线，给了他研究防守覆盖和思考如何利用自身牵制力的时间。有时他会向队友发出信号，即兴打一个快速战术，但有时他也会自己即兴发挥，然后其他马刺球员则努力与他配合。
比赛末段出现了一个奇特的时刻，文班亚马开始有些随意地运球直冲向底角的哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes)。在无路可走时，他把球扔给了巴恩斯，然后一边拍手一边向篮下跑去。这位经验丰富的侧翼球员将球巧妙地吊过防守，正好给到了顺下的文班亚马。这位中锋虽然没接稳球，但他立刻捡起来，并以一种只有他才能做到的方式伸臂将球扣进。
这一球虽然乱，但却是有意为之。
“有时候，我仍然会有一些看起来有点疯狂或不太受控制的（时刻），”文班亚马说。“但过去这种情况要多得多，现在则是有意识的成分更多了。”
这是他每晚都会多次创造出的那种看似随意却又高效的得分方式。它有些凌乱，令人费解，但就是管用。这一球颇有雷霆队MVP谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大的影子，他倒地的方式，将身体延展到极致，从而触及了无人能及的区域。
马刺队主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 将其比作尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokić)、卢卡·东契奇 (Luka Dončić) 和吉尔杰斯-亚历山大那些让队友都始料未及的打法。要学会适应这些球星的本能是需要时间的。
这些即兴的阅读能力，完美体现了文班亚马如何融入马刺的体系——在这个体系里，有众多后卫在禁区游弋，侧翼球员则埋伏在底角。凭借着他操控周围空间的方式，他能够成为球队的连接枢纽。如今，马刺不再将他死死地按在低位，他正在找到更多融入进攻节奏的方式。这让他们变得足够稳定，足以在执行力上胜过俄克拉荷马城的“稳定之王”。
“他愿意去阅读比赛，并执行比赛所要求的一切，这是最令人印象深刻的，”约翰逊说。“我认为随着时间的推移，他会不断成长，尤其是对模式的识别能力会更强——他能识别出对手想限制我们什么，或者想按他们的节奏来打什么，然后他就能帮助球队改变局势，为自己和球队创造优势。”
这种联动性在比赛开始前就已经建立。文班亚马说，胜利是幕后一切努力的必然结果。马刺队的成员们都乐于投入工作，而这种乐趣催生了富有竞争力的篮球。
所以现在他有了一种全新的感觉。他正以一种在NBA前所未有的胜率赢球，比以往任何时候都更能感受到多巴胺飙升的快感。
“每场比赛都如此激烈，对你个人的消耗也如此之大，因此获胜的回报也令人难以置信，”文班亚马说。“我不知道大脑或血液里是哪种分子，哪种激素，但这种感觉真的太棒了。”
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：After three wins over Thunder, Spurs might already be the best team in the NBA
After three wins over Thunder, Spurs might already be the best team in the NBA
OKLAHOMA CITY — The NBA’s balance of power is shifting before our eyes. Rarely does the schedule create a moment in time where things can change so swiftly. Typically, it takes an injury or a trade to make things feel holistically different in the NBA.
But the Spurs’ three wins over the Thunder in 12 days are undeniably … something. A protracted simulation of a playoff series between the two top teams in the West has undeniably concluded that the Spurs are ready to live in the same stratosphere as the defending champions.
“You don’t lose to a team three times in a row, in a short span, without them being better than you.” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “So we have to get better. We have to look in the mirror, and that’s everybody, from top to bottom, if we want to reach our ultimate goal.”
The Spurs are making a case that they are the best team in the NBA right now. They’ve notched two consecutive wins over the Thunder that ended in garbage time, one on their home floor and one on Oklahoma City’s. They have three guards that can run the offense effectively for 48 minutes, none of whom is even their best player. Victor Wembanyama, still on a minutes limit after returning from a calf injury, isn’t even close to playing his best.
“We’re never going to let the talent of one guy take away from the collective,” Wembanyama said after the Spurs’ 117-102 Christmas Day win over the Thunder. “That’s what allows us to beat great teams like that.”
San Antonio is not at the top of the league right now because it had a good few weeks. It’s because the Spurs haven’t stopped growing since the season started, and still have so much more room to evolve.
The Thunder were off to the best start in NBA history not too long ago. Now, they come out the other side of this gauntlet just 2.5 games ahead of their renewed rivals in San Antonio.
The Spurs gifted the basketball world a sense of suspense for the rest of the season, a feeling that there is a true challenger to the throne this season with unquestioned credentials. While San Antonio is well ahead of schedule in its ascension, the Spurs’ success appears sustainable.
Wembanyama’s month-long absence with a left calf strain, timed with De’Aaron Fox’s season debut, afforded the Spurs a chance to find their offensive identity. Wembanyama has effectively worked his way back into the rotation without stepping in the way of a well-oiled machine. The result is a team that has no drop-off point, no lull that lets the opponent back into the game, even if that opponent is the Thunder, the paragon of consistent basketball.
The Spurs have been fairly consistent in their message of downplaying the significance of this string of wins over the top dog in the league. But that processing is preceded by a brief moment of self-adulation. They recognize that the Thunder beat teams through consistency and longevity.
But that’s exactly what the Spurs have done to flip the script.
“It’s not just that [the Thunder] win games, it’s the way that they win games and they just wear teams down,” said Fox, who had a game-high 29 points Thursday. “Just being able to withstand that and withstand the runs that they have and then go on runs of our own, I think that’s the more impressive part and that’s what we’re happy about.”
Wembanyama, who had 19 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes, explained that the Spurs are defined by their objective to manipulate the opponent’s weakness. “What matters is to press where it hurts on the defense,” he said.
As the game carried on Thursday, Wembanyama’s role on the current version of this team started to materialize.
The point guard triumvirate of Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper has made it easy for Wembanyama to take a backseat in the offense, giving him time to study coverages and figure out where his gravity can be useful. There were times that he would give a signal to a teammate to ad-lib a quick action, but sometimes he just improvises on his own and the other Spurs try to figure out how to work with it.
There was a peculiar moment late in the game, when Wembanyama started dribbling a bit haphazardly right toward Harrison Barnes in the corner. With nowhere left to go, he just tossed the ball to Barnes and started clapping as he ran toward the basket. The veteran wing lofted the ball just over the defense, hitting Wembanyama on the roll. The center dropped the ball, but then just picked it up and reached out to dunk the ball in a way only he can.
It was messy, but it was with intention.
“Sometimes, I still have these (moments) where it’s like kind of crazy or not as much under control,” Wembanyama said. “But it used to be much more and, now, it’s much more conscious.”
It was the kind of haphazard, yet effective basket he creates multiple times a night. It’s sloppy, it’s confounding, but it works. There were shades of Thunder MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in there with the way he hit the deck, stretching himself thin enough that he got somewhere nobody else can reach.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson compared it to how Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Gilgeous-Alexander do things that their teammates haven’t quite seen before. It takes some time to learn how these stars’ instincts work.
These improvisational reads epitomized Wembanyama’s fit into the Spurs’ system, where there are a litany of guards roaming the paint and wings living out in the corners. He can be the connective tissue because of the way he manipulates the space around him. Now that the Spurs have gotten away from planting him in the post, he is finding more ways to work his way into the flow of the offense. It’s made them consistent enough to out-execute the consistency kings in Oklahoma City.
“His willingness to just play the game and execute whatever the game is calling upon has been the most impressive,” Johnson said. “I think that is what will continue to grow over time, is just the pattern recognition of what they are trying to take away from us or dictate on their terms, and then how he can help manipulate things and create advantages for himself and our team.”
That kind of connectivity is built before the game starts. Wembanyama said winning is a symptom of everything that happens behind closed doors. The Spurs are happy to come to work and the fun yields competitive basketball.
So now he is feeling something new. He’s winning at a rate he’s never experienced in the NBA, and feeling that dopamine rush more than ever.
“Each game is so intense, and it takes so much from you as a person, that the reward is just incredible,” Wembanyama said. “I don’t know whatever molecule it is in the brain or in the blood, what hormone, but it just feels incredible.”
By Jared Weiss, via The Athletic