By Mateo Mayorga | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-01-01 15:45:00
有时候，你会明显感觉到运动员也和普通人一样。在周三晚上的大部分时间里，圣安东尼奥马刺队打得就像是想在跨年夜提前打卡下班。你可以说这支球队直到第三节才开始认真起来，但他们最终用一场胜利告别了2025年，终结了此前因将自身水准降至对手级别而导致的两连败，同时也报了在阿联酋杯决赛中负于纽约尼克斯队的一箭之仇。
没有哪支球队的防守能做到完美，但天啊，那上半场的防守简直不忍直视。他们的转换防守被彻底打穿，丢掉了赛季新高的20分，并且在防守三分线时就好像在集体罢工。第三节开场时，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 扑向卡尔-安东尼·唐斯 (Karl-Anthony Towns) 的那一下感觉像个不祥之兆，但马刺是一支韧性十足的球队，能够承受对手的狂轰滥炸，并迅速用一波攻势予以回应。然而，联盟里的聪明球队会抓住这些错误并加以利用。可以想象，主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 在录像室里复盘时会看得直摇头。
尽管如此，约翰逊教练在中场休息时祭出的任何“魔法”都奏效了，或许在场边时不时流露出一些情绪也能激励队员们。卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 也是一位远超数据所能体现的关键替补，无论他看起来有多像一位数学教授。他在第四节抢到了两个至关重要的进攻篮板，并在文班因一次骇人的膝盖过度伸展伤势下场后，于关键时刻撑起了球队的防守。
赛后观察
- 只有那些顶级强队，才能在防守端被打爆后，于比赛中及时调整心态并战胜强敌。仅仅走过场式的打球并不可取，但这恰恰说明了一支球队在比客队少命中八记三分球的情况下依然能够胜出，其天赋有多么惊人。马刺队最终在内线肉搏中表现得像是更渴望胜利的一方，他们的掩护助攻是纽约队的两倍，并迫使对手出现更多失误。
- 深度依然是马刺队的优势之一。当文班亚马一瘸一拐地走回训练室时，一些角色球员——科内特、朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 和凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson)——挺身而出。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 当晚也状态不佳。由于科内特去年并不在队中，因此很难做出评判，但这些时刻要么展现了球队的成长，要么仅仅凸显了卢克有多出色：在之前的赛季里，球队在“无文班”时段几乎总是举步维艰，而现在他们证明了自己能与任何对手抗衡。
- 文班亚马在罚球率上的提升，应该是最能给马刺球迷留下深刻印象的进步领域。他场均能获得6.9次罚球，周三的比赛是他本赛季第八次站上罚球线至少10次。更明智的投篮选择为他赢得了更多机会，而制造更多犯规的最终价值在于，对手要么放松对他的防守压力，要么被迫换上能力稍逊的球员。
- 每当我质疑尚帕尼在轮换阵容中的位置时，他总能强势回应。要知道，他在过去九场比赛中总共只命中了11记三分，而对阵纽约这一场就投进了11个，创造了队史纪录。无论他的上场时间最终会如何变化，他都证明了自己在被需要时能够挺身而出。
- 马刺队已经积累了不少高质量的胜利，包括十二月份的六场，而正是在这样的夜晚，我们对他们的了解才最为深刻。两位数大胜萨克拉门托国王队和华盛顿奇才队说明不了什么，但对阵纽约队时，情况就完全不同了，即便尼克斯缺少了两名关键的角色球员。任何人都不应因一场胜利而过分乐观，但这是他们本赛季最大的一次逆转，从落后19分的情况下翻盘成功。（此前的最佳表现是在阿联酋杯中，于丹佛客场逆转了掘金队18分的分差。）
- 或许马刺队应该规定，球员每次被投篮假动作晃起就罚款1000美元，因为这已经成了一种流行病。他们因为这个错误送出了太多次直线突破或远距离跳投，导致防守阵型陷入混乱。更糟糕的是，全联盟在外线的投篮几乎都很难被封盖，所以根本没必要去尝试。本赛季球队的防守一直很犀利，但如果球员们能控制住自己不起跳，满足于仅仅干扰投篮，那么每场比赛至少可以避免多丢5到10分。
- 约翰逊教练在新闻发布会上没有透露文班伤情的最新情况，但他对文班能回到替补席观看比赛结束感到鼓舞。文班亚马自己则表示感觉有些酸痛，但“非常有信心”，并开玩笑说他当时差点没被拦住，就要重返赛场了。
- 像德阿龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 和杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson) 这样的球员之所以吸引眼球，是因为他们在移动中拥有顶级的节奏变化和摆脱能力。尽管是场上身材最小的球员，他们却打出了巨人般的表现，并且都是各自球队在禁区内的头号得分手。两人都以速度见长，但前者更偏向于技巧，后者则更依赖力量。这种风格迥异的对决，绝对是球迷不容错过的视觉盛宴。
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：What we learned from the Spurs win against the Knicks
What we learned from the Spurs win against the Knicks
Sometime it’s obvious that athletes are just like regular people. For much of Wednesday night, the San Antonio Spurs played like they wanted to clock out early on New Year’s Eve. You could say that the team didn’t get serious until the third quarter, yet finished 2025 by ending a two-game skid in which they played down to the level of competition, while also avenging their loss to the New York Knicks in the Emirates Cup Final.
No team plays a perfect game defensively, but mamma mia, what was that first half? They were exposed in transition, surrendering a season-worst 20 points, and seemed to be on a strike against guarding the 3-point line. Victor Wembanyama lunging at Karl-Anthony Towns to start the third felt like a bad omen, but the Spurs are a high-character team, able to eat a ton of shots and recover with a flurry. But the smart teams in this league will key in on these mistakes and exploit them. One imagines coach Mitch Johnson shuddering at a review in the film room.
Still, whatever mojo Johnson has been employing at halftime is working and perhaps seeing some emotion from time to time on the sideline inspires the troops. Luke Kornet is also a big-time sub way beyond the numbers regardless of how much he resembles a math professor. He had two momentous offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter, and he anchored the defense in crunch time while Wemby was on the bench after a scary knee hyperextension.
Observations
- Only the standout teams can mentally flip a switch during a game and win against quality competition after getting lit up defensively. It’s not ideal to just go through the motions, but it just speaks to how talented a team can be to come out on top while making eight fewer triples than their guests. The Spurs eventually played like the more desperate unit in the trenches, doubling New York’s screen assists and forcing more turnovers.
- Depth continues to be one of the Spurs’ strengths as some of the background players —Kornet, Julian Champagnie, and Keldon Johnson— stepped up when Wembanyama limp/hopped into the trainer’s room. Stephon Castle had an off night, too. Kornet not being on the team last year makes it hard to judge, but these moments either show growth or merely highlight how good Luke is: in prior seasons, the team was nearly always struggled in non-Wemby minutes, and now they’re showing that they can hang with anyone.
- The area of improvement for Wembanyama that should most impress Spurs fans is the increase in his free throw rate. He’s averaging 6.9 freebies per game, and Wednesday was the eighth time this season he had at least 10 attempts. Getting smarter with his shot selection has yielded more opportunities, and the ultimate value of drawing more fouls is that opponents either loosen up their pressure or get benched for inferior players.
- Whenever I question Champagnie’s place in the rotation, he comes alive. Consider that he made 11 treys in his previous nine games and had 11 against New York, setting a franchise record. Regardless of what eventually happens to his minutes, he’s showing he’s capable of delivering when called upon.
- The Spurs have racked up a nice chunk of quality wins, including six in December, and these are the nights we learn the most about them. Double-digit wins against the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards mean nada, but that equation changes drastically against New York, even without two of Knicks’s pivotal role players. Nobody should get too high off one victory, but it was their biggest comeback effort of the season, recovering from being down 19 points. (The previous best was coming back from an 18-point hole against the Nuggets in Denver in Emirates Cup play.)
- Maybe the Spurs should fine players $1,000 each time they bite on an up-fake because it’s becoming an epidemic. They give up too many line drives or deep jumpers after making this mistake since the defense gets put in a scramble. It makes it worse that barely any shots across the league are blocked on the perimeter, so there’s little need to try it. The defense has been sharp this year, but it can avoid five to 10 extra points per game, at least, if players stay down and be content with merely contesting the shot.
- Johnson didn’t have an update on Wemby’s condition at the presser, but felt encouraged that he came back to watch the end of the game on the bench. Wembanyama said he was feeling sore but “very confident,” and joked that he had to be held back from returning to the game.
- Players like De’Aaron Fox and Jalen Brunson attract tons of eyeballs because they have elite wiggle on the move. Despite being the smallest guys on the floor, they played like giants and were both their team’s leading scorers in the lane. Both are notably quick, but the former deals more in finesse and the latter in power. These matchups of conflicting styles are appointment viewing.
By Mateo Mayorga, via Pounding The Rock