By Marilyn Dubinski | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-01-15 14:00:00
每支NBA球队，即便是最顶尖的队伍，或早或晚都会遇到一段低谷期。一月份通常是这样一个时期，球员们开始感到疲惫，但距离全明星周末的休整还有一个月，想要获得喘息之机并非易事。马刺队目前正深陷于这样的低迷之中，在过去10场比赛中输掉了6场，但他们并非个例。幸运的是，由于西部排名第2至第6位的其他四支球队也各自遇到了麻烦，马刺在昨晚丹佛掘金获胜后，仍守住了西部第二的席位，但领先优势仅有半个胜场。
尽管如此，马刺一度在西部第二的位置上拥有相对舒适的领先优势，如果情况不尽快改变，他们的排名将继续下滑。走出低迷的唯一方法就是坚持比赛，用场上表现打破僵局，这也是我们所有人都在期待的。以下是他们近期挣扎的一些最明显的原因，以及相应的解决方法。（数据来源：Basketball-Reference。）
三分投射
这可能是所有人首先想到的问题，而且理由充分。在本赛季的前30场比赛中，马刺取得了23胜7负的战绩，场均净胜对手7.1分。这部分得分优势包括在三分线外的领先：他们场均能以可观的36.7%命中率投进13.6记三分，而对手只能投进12.8记。但在最近的10场比赛中，马刺场均只能以惨淡的28.4%命中率投进10.8记三分，而他们的对手则以36.6%的命中率场均投进15记三分。
这是一个巨大的转变，马刺从原先在三分线上场均领先对手2.4分，变成了场均被对手反超6.5分，这相当于每场比赛产生了接近9分的不利波动。考虑到他们输掉的6场比赛中有3场分差在5分或以内，不难想象，只要投篮表现稍好一些，他们本可以继续在西部第二的位置上稳坐钓鱼台。
人们很容易将矛头指向哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes)，他在前30场比赛中三分命中率高达40.1%，而此后骤降至仅有21.4%，并且场均少投进两球。但现实是，全队都在挣扎，只有凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 的表现始终如一。（他的稳定性值得全世界的赞誉，但马刺不能仅靠他作为最可靠的射手来生存，因为他的主要优势在内线。）投篮失准是人人都会遇到的情况，但全队同时陷入低迷就相当致命了。
解决方法 ：或许有时会让球迷感到懊恼，但答案就是：继续投，直到投进为止。对马刺而言，挑战在于避免过于痴迷于三分球并过多地仓促出手，而是要找到平衡点，既能让对手的防守不敢松懈，又能为突破打开通道。当赛季初他们的进攻运转流畅时，马刺是难以阻挡的。
后卫线得分困境
马刺的得分困境不仅限于场上的某个区域，整个后场都陷入了麻烦。德阿龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 都处于投篮低迷期（尽管后两者或许在对阵俄克拉荷马雷霆的比赛中有所回暖）。即便是他们共有的强项——篮下终结能力——最近也变得举步维艰。部分原因可以归结为侧翼球员的三分投射挣扎，导致对方防守可以收缩内线，但这也与球员的决策有关。
在这三名后卫中，通常有两人同时在场，他们时常轮流担任持球手，这有时会导致大量站桩和进攻停滞，因为他们都在寻找突破路线。如果进攻要围绕他们的突破展开，那么他们就必须在突破时命中投篮，并且通过分球创造出的三分机会也需要开始命中。再次强调，太多的个人低迷状态正在相互重叠和影响。
解决方法： 除了老生常谈的“把球投进”，马刺似乎在福克斯担任主控手时表现最佳，而卡斯尔作为第二组织者，在接球突破时表现出色，但在担任主控手时则效果不佳，因为他容易陷入运球困境。解决方案是让福克斯全职担任控球后卫，让卡斯尔打无球。有人可能会说这会阻碍卡斯尔的成长，但我们也有必要反思，他的未来究竟是在控球后卫位置上，还是他实际上是一名得分后卫。
（这也突显了德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 的价值，他因内收肌拉伤缺席了过去8场比赛。他可能不是阵容中最华丽的球员，但他是一个稳定的得分点，不总是需要球权，并能在场上任何位置自主创造投篮机会。）
对手开始更加重视马刺
在第30场和第31场比赛之间，还有一个关键变化：马刺引起了全世界的关注。NBA杯很有趣，但并未被真正严肃对待（迄今为止，杯赛冠军与最终的NBA总冠军之间毫无关联），但马刺在四分之一决赛击败湖人、在拉斯维加斯战胜雷霆后，依然吸引了一些目光。但真正让他们声名鹊起的是，一周后他们再次两度击败雷霆——无论主场还是客场，都以相对统治性的方式取胜，证明了拉斯维加斯的胜利并非侥幸。
从那时起，世界开始将他们视为一个难缠的对手，而马刺的挣扎或许也并非巧合地从此开始。他们的防守一直处于顶级水平，尤其当维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 在场时，但进攻端却像是撞上了一堵墙。我们已经列举了很多原因，但还有一个因素是，对手在面对强队时会拿出最佳状态来应战——这是自2019年以来，各队在对阵圣安东尼奥时不必做的事，也是马刺需要适应的新情况。
解决方法： 这是队中只有少数几名球员经历过的新现实，因此像巴恩斯、福克斯和卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 这样的老将需要继续挺身而出，帮助他们更年轻、经验更少的队友度过难关。再也不会有球队抱着轻视的态度来和马刺比赛了，所以马刺自己要做的就是“拥抱敌意”，并以牙还牙。
马刺终将走出困境，因为强队总能做到这一点，问题只在于何时以及需要付出什么。一个罕见的连续三场主场比赛正等待着他们，虽然他们没有认真对待开启这10场低迷期的那个主场比赛，但在经历了横跨美国东部的魔鬼赛程后，他们现在应该会了。目前，一切都还悬而未决，但如果他们不想在排名上发现自己不仅落后于雷霆，还被其他球队反超，就必须尽快解决问题。
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：Three reasons for the Spurs recent slump and how to fix them
Three reasons for the Spurs recent slump and how to fix them
Every NBA team, even the best, hits a rough patch at some point or another. January is a common time considering players are starting to get tired but the All-Star break is still a month away, and a second wind can be hard to come by. The Spurs are currently entrenched in such a slump, losing six of their last 10 games, but they aren’t the only ones. Look no further than the fact that they’re just a half game second seed in the West (after Denver won last night) because fortunately for them, the other four times competing in that 2-6 range have had their own issues as well.
Still, the Spurs had a relatively comfortable cushion on the second seed for a while, and they’ll keep sliding down if things don’t change soon. They only way to get out of slump is to just keep playing and make it happen, and that’s something we’re all waiting for. Here are some of the most obvious reasons for their recent struggles and how they can fix them. (Stats are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.)
Three-point shooting
This is probably the first thing that jumps into everyone’s mind, and with good reason. In the first 30 games of the season, when the Spurs went 23-7, they were outscoring their opponents by 7.1 points per game. Part of that difference included outscoring their opponents at the three-point line by hitting 13.6 threes per game at a respectable 36.7% rate, while allowing 12.8 threes. In the 10 games since, the Spurs have made just 10.8 threes per game at a miserable 28.4% clip, while their opponents have been making 15 threes per game on 36.6% shooting.
That’s a massive shift that goes from the Spurs having a 2.4-point per game advantage from the arc over their opponents to being outscored by 6.5 points per game, good for a nearly 9-point swing in the wrong direction. Considering three of their six losses have been by 5 points or less, it’s not hard to imagine that slightly better shooting would mean they’d still be comfortably ahead of the bunch in the 2nd seed.
It’s easy to point to Harrison Barnes as the main culprit, who went from shooting 40.1% from three in the first 30 games to only 21.4% and two fewer makes per game since, but they reality is everyone has been struggling, with Keldon Johnson being the only one who has been steady across the board. (And all the credit in the world to his consistency, but the Spurs can’t survive with him as their most reliable shooter since his main strength is inside.) Shooting slumps happen to everyone, but it’s pretty brutal when it’s all at the same time.
Fix: Perhaps to the chagrin of fans sometimes, the answer is to just keep shooting until you make it. For the Spurs, the challenge is to not get too three-happy and jack up too many, but find that balance to keep defenses honest while opening up the driving lanes. When it was working earlier in the season, the Spurs were hard to stop.
Guards struggling to score
It’s not just one area of the floor the Spurs are struggling to score, but the entire backcourt as well. De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper are in shooting slumps (although the latter two might have had semi-breakouts in OKC). Even one strength they all share — finishing at the rim — has been a struggle of late. Some of this can be tied to the three-point shooting struggles from wings resulting defenses being able to stay home, but it’s also a result of decision making.
Between the thee guards, usually two of them are on the floor at once, often taking turns on who is the ball-handler, which at times can result in a lot of standing around and stagnant offense while they look for a driving lane. If the offense is going to be centered around their drives, then they need to make their shots on the drive, and the threes from their outlet passes need to start falling. Again, too many slumps are overlapping and building off of each other.
Fix: Besides the usual “just make your shots”, the Spurs seem to be at their best when Fox is the main ball handler and Castle is a secondary creator who thrives in the catch-and-drive but not so much as the main ball handler since he’s prone dribbling into trouble. The solution is put Fox on fulltime point guard duty and play Castle off the ball. Some may say this will hinder Castle’s development, but it’s worth asking if his future is at point guard, or if he’s actually a shooting guard.
(This has also helped highlight the value of Devin Vassell, who has missed the last 8 games with an adductor strain. He may not be the flashiest player on the roster, but he’s a steady hand who doesn’t always need the ball and can create his own shot anywhere on the court.)
Opponents are taking them more seriously
There’s one more key difference between games 30 and 31: the Spurs had the world’s attention. The NBA Cup is fun but not taken too seriously (there has been zero correlation between the winners and eventual NBA champions so far), but the Spurs still caught some eyes by beating the Lakers in the quarterfinals and Thunder in Vegas. But things really took off when they showed Vegas was no fluke by beating the Thunder two more times a week later, both at home and on the road, and in relatively dominant fashion.
That was when the world started seeing them as a problem, and perhaps not so coincidently, when the Spurs’ struggles began. The defense has been elite, especially when Victor Wembanyama is on the floor , but the offense looks like it ran into a brick wall. We’ve already listed a lot of reasons why, but it’s also just teams bringing their best to beat one of the best: something they haven’t had to do against San Antonio since at least 2019, and something the Spurs need to adjust to.
Fix: This is a new reality that only a select few players on this team has dealt with, so veterans like Barnes, Fox and Luke Kornet need to continue to step up and help guide their younger, more inexperienced teammates through it. No one is going to come into games against the Spurs without taking them seriously anymore, so it’s up them to “embrace the hate” and return the favor.
The Spurs will find their way out of this because that is what good teams do, it’s just a matter of when and what it will take. A rare three-game homestand awaits them, and while they didn’t take the one that kicked off this 10-game slump as seriously as they should have, they should now after the gauntlet of a schedule they just ran around the eastern half of the country. For now, everything is still up for grabs, but they need to figure things out soon if they don’t want to find themselves looking up at anyone else besides the Thunder in the standings.
By Marilyn Dubinski, via Pounding The Rock