By Devon Birdsong | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-01-11 21:29:46
在1980年代初的某个夜晚，我的父亲像往常一样，翻出窗户，融入夜色之中。
他的自行车在由柏油路和暖黄色的钠灯光晕构成的景致中悄然穿行，划过社区家家户户沉睡的剪影，最终抵达了朋友们等待他的碰头地点。
下坡滑行的嗡嗡声伴随着他们，每辆自行车都像是这支幽灵般交响乐队中的一件乐器。他们就这样一路前行，离开了宁静的社区，驶入了奥斯汀市中心的街道。
渐渐地，车轮的咔哒声中加入了笑声，随着离家越来越远，笑声也愈发响亮。谈话的片段消散在玩笑与大笑、俏皮话与回击的你来我往中——年轻人们用着自古以来便备受推崇的方式衡量着彼此，充满了青春的冲劲与招架。
那一夜的大部分时间里，他们在这座城市尚显慵懒闲适的记忆中呼啸而过，随心所欲地享受着夜晚提供的任何漫无目的的娱乐，刻意回避着回家时那段艰难的上坡路——一群无人看管的孩子，在一个同样疏于看管的世界里。
但最终，他们还是将车头转向北方，在每个熟悉的大道口互道晚安，直到由橡胶轮胎与沥青路面组成的静谧合唱，被削减为仅剩一个孤独的声音。
筋疲力尽的父亲把他的十速自行车放回车库，然后重新爬进窗户。在房间的黑暗中，他刚脱下一半衣服，就注意到房间角落里传来另一阵不均匀的低沉嗡嗡声。
他小心翼翼地向声音源头靠近，眼睛开始适应黑暗，一个轮廓逐渐显现：他的父亲，正睡得死沉，就躺在他的床中央。
至于为什么这个特别的家族故事会在昨晚的比赛中浮现在我的脑海里，我无法确切说清。或许是这场对决中的某些东西，让人感觉到一种青春期的莽撞，一种既让人忧心又惹人喜爱的特质。
斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 一如既往地打出了窒息般的防守，但在进攻端，他的自信却完全超越了他的经验和现有的技术水平，在进攻时间还很充裕时就仓促出手，你几乎能听到格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 坐在舒适的椅子里发出的咆哮声——几乎能看到他在场边痛斥少年托尼·帕克 (Tony Parker) 的画面重现。
迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 则是不知疲倦地冲击篮筐，仿佛坚信青春的运动能力可以挫败对手球队针对他这种投射不稳的内线突破手所做的防守调整。
就连维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 也加入了这场“青春狂欢”，在非最佳位置要球，在传球是更优选择时强行出手，笃信自己怪物级别的身体天赋和英雄主义般的自信就足以解决问题。
比赛的结果如你所料，起伏不定。米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 一度将卡斯尔摁在板凳上，换上了其他阵容。哈珀在仅有的七次出手中只送出了一次助攻，因为凯尔特人派上了众多能够限制他切入的后卫，对他进行了围剿。那么文班呢？嗯，他最终证明了自己是对的，就像他时常做到的那样，用一记决定比赛胜负的中距离急停跳投，几乎抹去了比赛中所有不愉快的记忆。
问题在于，有时候，青春的正确性只有青春自己才能诠释。这种莽撞可能带来截然不同的结果，虽然经验最适合引导它，但经验无法总是预见到只有年轻人才敢冒的风险会带来怎样的回报。
经验也未必能完全理解莽撞可能导致的后果。
过去几周，马刺队一直在这种界线上徘徊，他们取得的成绩也正是一支意识到自己进步神速、但离完全成熟尚有距离的球队所应有的表现。
战胜俄克拉荷马雷霆的几场胜利，宣告了他们是一股崛起的力量，充满了身体发育期的冲劲和飙升的荷尔蒙。现在，他们也必须面对成长带来的瑕疵与烦恼。
击败联盟最佳球队让他们相信，自己已经到了可以随心所欲掌控比赛的境界。因此，他们的努力程度和专注度时有起伏，一些比赛赢得比预想中要惊险得多。
再加上一段极其糟糕的投篮低谷期（在过去10场比赛中，马刺的真实命中率排在联盟第26位，有效命中率第28位，投篮命中率第24位），我曾确信他们会在面对纪律严明的凯尔特人时一败涂地。
然而，青春再次证明我错了，而对此你很难真正生气。
我的父亲溜出他童年家中的次数多得数不清。他的父母在70和80年代养育了五个精力旺盛的儿子，忙得不可开交。即便在最好的情况下，要照看好这么多孩子也绝非易事，结果就是，他常常能侥幸得手。
然而，时不时地，他回到家会发现有人睡在他的床上。三十年后，他也体会到了将同样情景“还给”自己某个儿子的诗意乐趣。
循环往复，永无止境。有些事情永远不会改变。欠下的债，迟早是要还的。
谢天谢地，昨晚还不是时候。
比赛看点
- 马刺队在投篮如此惨不忍睹的情况下还能赢球，这简直是个奇迹。无论将其归因于运气不佳、均值回归还是某些更诡异的因素，事实是，马刺在过去10场比赛中的三分命中率仅为29%，过去5场更是低至26%，均为联盟垫底。他们到底是如何赢下比赛的？嗯，这当然得益于他们在过去10场比赛中防守效率高居联盟第2，在过去5场更是全联盟第一。更疯狂的是，考虑到队内有如此多年经球员获得了大量上场时间、关键球员缺阵以及化学反应仍在建立之中，他们的防守仍有提升空间。进攻端还有很长的路要走，但马刺 现在 就已经是一支顶级防守强队了，这对于任何季后赛的愿望来说都是一个好兆头。
- 说到缺阵，天哪，德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 的缺席在当下是多么明显。没有他，似乎尚帕尼 (Champagnie)、巴恩斯 (Barnes)、福克斯 (Fox) 和文班都只能轮流在某个夜晚各自为战地迎来手感爆发，而其他队友却无法分享他们的好运。尽管在缺少德文（他本赛季在防守端表现出色）的情况下，球队的防守出人意料地稳固，但进攻端却没有足够多的射手来弥补空间问题。虽然马刺阵容深度足够，但投射深度上的短板必须在休赛期或交易截止日前得到解决。
- 我们能聊聊文班到底是个多么颠覆认知的怪物吗？无论球队如何针对他设计战术，也无论他处于阵容的哪个位置，他总能以一种重要的方式影响比赛，根本不受上场时间限制。在过去10场比赛中，他场均仅出战25分钟，便能贡献23分和9个篮板，外加2.5次抢断与盖帽总和 (stocks)，投篮命中率接近52%。他并非马刺在这段低迷期中仍能赢球的唯一原因，但也相差不远了。
今日BGM——今夜主题曲：
Learning To Fly by Tom Petty
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 over the Celtics
What we learned from the Spurs win over the Celtics
One night, in the early 1980s, as he had done many times before, my father climbed out of his window and into the evening air.
Pedaling quietly through a landscape of asphalt and the warm sodium yellow of streetlamps, his bicycle carved its way past the darkened silhouettes of neighborhood domesticity until he’d arrived at the rendezvous spot where his friends waited for him.
The hum of downhill coasting accompanied them, each bike an instrument in a ghostly orchestra as they worked their way out of their sleepy communities and into the streets of central Austin.
Gradually, the clicking was joined by the sound of laughter, growing louder as the distance from home increased; snippets of conversation lost in the call-and-response of joke and laughter, quip and retort, youthful thrust and parry — young men measuring themselves in ways as old and time-honored as tradition itself.
For most of the night, they hooted and hollered through the streets of a sleepier, laid-back memory of the city it became, taking on whatever aimless entertainment the evening offered up, avoiding the thought of their uphill trek home, latchkey children in a latchkey world.
But eventually, they turned their handlebars northward, saying their goodbyes at each of the relevant avenues until the muted chorus of rubber on blacktop was whittled down to a single voice.
Exhausted, my father returned his ten-speed to the garage and climbed back through the window. He was halfway undressed in the darkness of the room before he caught the uneven hum of another low sound emanating from his corner of the room.
Approaching the sound with caution, his eyes began to adjust to the blackness, and a form began to take shape: his father, dead asleep, in the middle of his bed.
Why this particular family story came to the forefront of my mind during last night’s game, I cannot say for sure. Something about the contest felt youthful and reckless in a way that draws forth both consternation and affection.
Stephon Castle played suffocating defense, per usual, but offensively operated with a self-assurance beyond both experience and current skill level, heaving shots so early in the clock that you could almost hear Gregg Popovich growling from the confines of a comfortable chair — could almost see the replays of him laying into a teenage Tony Parker on the sideline.
Dylan Harper charged relentlessly, as if convinced that youthful athleticism could thwart the defensive adjustments that teams have begun to make in reaction to budding interior drivers with otherwise shaky shot profiles.
Even Victor Wembanyma joined in, calling for the ball in sub-optimal positions, forcing shots where passes would have been the better option, certain that physical freakishness and heroic confidence would suffice.
The results were about as uneven as you’d expect. Mitch Johnson benched Castle in favor of other lineups for a while. Harper tallied just one assist in addition to taking only seven shots, due to the swarming of a Celtic defense replete with guards capable of denying him entry. And Wemby? Well, he ended up being right, as he sometimes is, with a game-winning mid-range pull-up that all but wiped away the memory of any ugliness.
The thing is, sometimes youth is right in a way that only youth can be. The recklessness can go either way, and while experience is best suited to guide it, it can’t always predict the reward for risks that only youth will take.
Nor does it necessarily understand consequence to the fullest extent of experience.
The Spurs have spent the last several weeks riding that line with the kinds of results you’d expect from a team that’s figured out that they’re further along than they thought they were, but still fall short of a fuller maturity.
The Oklahoma City victories announced them as an ascending power with the force of growth spurts and climbing testosterone levels. Now they have to reckon with the blemished skin and the body odor.
Defeating the best team in the league convinced them that they were in a place where they could simply flip the switch at will. Consequently, effort and focus have sometimes fluctuated, and games have been much closer than they should.
Combined with an abysmal shooting drought (the Spurs are 26th in True Shooting Percentage, 28th in Effective Field Goal Percentage, and 24th in Field Goal Percentage over the last 10 games), I felt certain they’d fall flat against a regimented Celtics team.
Youth has proven me wrong yet again, and it’s hard to be mad about it.
My father snuck out of his childhood home more times than he can count. His parents raised five high-spirited young men in the 70s and 80s, and they had their hands full. It’s hard to keep track of that many children in the best of circumstances, and as a result, he frequently got away with it.
Every now and then, though, he came home to find someone sleeping in his bed. Thirty years later, he had the poetic pleasure of doing the same to one of his sons.
The cycle never ends. Some things never change. The piper will be paid.
Just not last night, thank goodness.
Takeaways
- It’s nothing short of a miracle that the Spurs have been winning games with such abysmal shooting. Whether it’s bad luck, regression to the mean, or something weirder, the Spurs are dead last in 3-point percentage at 29% over the last 10 games, and 26% over the last five. How can they possibly win games like that? Well, it certainly helps to be 2nd in defensive rating over those 10 games, and 1st in the NBA over those five. What’s even crazier is that the defense still has room to improve, with so many young players soaking up playing time, important absences, and chemistry still building. The offense still has a ways to go, but the Spurs are a top defense *now*, and that bodes well for any postseason aspirations.
- Speaking of absences, boy, is Devin Vassell’s noticeable right now. Without him, it seems like Champagnie, Barnes, Fox, and Wemby have all taken turns having hot nights in isolation, with no one else sharing in their good fortune. While the defense has held up surprisingly well without Devin (who’s having an outstanding year on the end), the offense just doesn’t have enough shooters to compensate and make up for the spacing issues. While the Spurs are deep, the lack of shooting depth specifically will have to be addressed in the off-season or at the deadline.
- Can we talk about what mind-bending freak Wemby is? It just doesn’t matter how teams scheme him, or what part of the lineup he’s in, he’s going to affect the game in a major way, no matter the minutes. Over the last 10 games, he’s averaging 23/9 in just 25 minutes, while adding 2.5 stocks (combined steals and blocks) and shooting just shy of 52% from the field. He’s not the only reason the Spurs are still winning games in the midst of this slump, but he’s not far from it.
Playing You Out – The Theme Song of the Evening:
Learning To Fly by Tom Petty
By Devon Birdsong, via Pounding The Rock