By Marilyn Dubinski | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-01-29 16:12:15
比赛还没开始，我就已经身心俱疲了。我刚刚连续两天参加了长达10小时的会议，精神上已经垮了。这是我所在部门的年度会议，通常会是一个“异地”活动。有时它在圣安东尼奥举行——那当然好！那是我的家乡，从休斯顿开车过去很方便，而且河滨步道实在是太棒了。之前也在达拉斯开过（那可没什么意思——路程更远，而且在我看来，那是个乏味的城市），但今年，会议原定在佛罗里达！(有意思，而且我从四岁起就没去过那里了！)
无论地点在哪，按理说都应该在休斯顿以外的地方，因为我部门超过一半的人都在这里，其余的同事则分散在国家的东半部。会议的目的是让所有人聚在一起，会后可以共进晚餐、增进感情，同时没人能溜号回家。这很累人，但我很享受增进感情的环节（至少是晚餐，我不是那种会喝酒到凌晨2点，然后第二天在会议上痛苦挣扎的人）。
然而，由于预算原因，佛罗里达之行被取消了，会议改在我们休斯顿市中心的办公室举行，所有远程办公的同事都通过电话会议参加。因为不住在酒店，我仍然需要上下班通勤，这让一天变得更长了。我也没能见到那些来自全国各地、经常交谈却一年难得见上一面的同事们。更雪上加霜的是，这已经是连续第三年会议受到冬季风暴的影响，导致周一的活动被取消，所有议程都挤在了周二和周三。换句话说，这只是两个超长的工作日，唯一的优点就是有免费的早午餐。
经历了这一切之后，晚上8:30马刺对阵火箭的开球时间，感觉比平时更加折磨人。雪上加霜的是，比赛前20多分钟的场面惨不忍睹，马刺看起来完全无计可施——感觉他们甚至没有在努力，而火箭队则轻而易举地撕开了他们的防线，在半场结束前3分22秒时取得了16分的领先优势——我当时已经准备好今天早上写一篇充满抱怨的《赛后观察》了。Pounding the Rock的老读者们可能知道我通常是个乐观主义者，尽量不做过多的批评（他们还年轻，这是米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 作为主教练的第一个完整赛季，给他一个机会，等等），但昨晚我实在忍不了了。尤其是在几天前主场输给鹈鹕的比赛中，他们表现出了同样糟糕的拼劲；也因为这种自满和状态起伏的问题已经持续了一个多月。
这是我在上半场与 Jeje Gomez 和 Jacob Douglas 发短信时说的话，当时火箭队刚刚抢下了一连串的进攻篮板（其中一个球在三个只是看着的马刺球员之间弹来弹去，最后被一个原本在战局之外的火箭球员拿到），还出现了漫不经心的后场失误：“对于手感冰凉这类问题，我可以给他们（马刺）一段宽限期，但拼劲不足和自满是不可原谅的。他们到底还需要多少场‘警钟’式的比赛（才能吸取教训）？”
显然，我的超能力是反向毒奶，因为在那之后不久，他们似乎想通了什么。他们打得更强硬了，不再漫不经心地处理球，并开始完成防守和拼抢篮板。我个人非常震惊他们居然还在比赛中，半场休息时只落后8分。与上周在休斯顿的比赛截然相反，那支开局火热的球队在下半场急转直下，尤其是在第四节。到那时，马刺已经打得对手溃不成军，就连凯文·杜兰特 (Kevin Durant) 看了都想发飙。
马刺把凯文·杜兰特折磨得够呛 pic.twitter.com/HQx4s0Z5DD
— Hater Report (@ HaterReport_) January 29, 2026
这才是我们期望从这支球队身上看到的：充满身体对抗、渴望胜利且意志坚定。下半场带给我的喜悦，正如上半场带给我的沮丧一样多，这也彻底颠覆了我这篇《赛后观察》的基调。这会是他们终于铭记于心的警钟吗？还是说，如果目前战绩远超实力的夏洛特黄蜂队在周六的早场比赛中打了他们一个措手不及，我们注定会再次感到失望？届时我们就会知道答案。但在此期间，我会好好享受这场战胜宿敌的胜利，毕竟我本已将其视为一场预料之中的失利，而在比赛进行了21分钟后，这种可能性似乎更大了。
赛后观察
- 就像这场比赛和马刺队整体表现一样，对斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 来说，这也是判若两人（几乎是）的半场表现。在前21分钟里，他展现了令人沮丧的那一面：防守时断时续，进攻时犹豫不决，让所有人都迫切希望他能把球权交给德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)。然后，像其他人一样，他像变了个人一样，在下半场展现了最好的自己。他防守并骚扰着火箭队的最佳球员，从凯文·杜兰特到阿尔佩伦·申京 (Alperen Sengun)，并在进攻端做出了贡献，他不试图做得太多，只是简单地利用防守给出的路线，在篮下完成终结。正如他昨晚所展示的，当一切顺遂时，他是马刺队比赛局势的改变者，现在我们只需要看到他更稳定地拿出这样的表现。
- 在观看上半场比赛时，我也准备在这里给维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 同样严厉的批评。他在攻防两端都显得很被动，看起来很沮丧，这在他面对像火箭队这样身体对抗激烈的球队时是一个常见的问题。但也许我最大的担忧是看到他被同样身形瘦长的杜兰特在身体对抗上压制。诚然，杜兰特的身材更厚实一些，体重多了4磅，身高至少矮了5英寸（我仍然认为文班的身高更接近7英尺7英寸，而不是7英尺4英寸，但无所谓了），但他毕竟年长了15岁。虽然他在37岁时仍然是一名非常优秀的球员，但他不应该在冲击篮筐的路上把文班推开，也不应该在另一端阻止文班做同样的事情。幸运的是，文班在下半场想通了这一点并振作起来：在防守端冲击每一个对手，封盖投篮，并强行杀向篮下得分或博取罚球。对文班和卡斯尔说：请更多地拿出这样的表现。
- 我们的主编 J.R. Wilco 告诉我他有同感，但我对申京有着一种在体育层面上的极度厌恶，而且我甚至不打算假装不知道为什么。我相信他在场下是个很棒的人，但天哪，我真受不了看他打篮球。作为一个大个子，他假摔太多了；他是个卢卡·东契奇 (Luka Doncic) 级别的抱怨大王，脸上也挂着同样爱抱怨的表情，以及那种“我这辈子从没犯过规，但我每次一碰球就会被犯规”的态度；他的肢体语言也很糟糕。他是一名全明星级别的球员，如果他是马刺的一员，我相信我们会很喜欢他——我们都知道马刺在2021年选秀中在他之前选择了那个我们都知道是谁的人所犯的错误——但最终，我很高兴他不是。我就是不喜欢他，而他效力于我们的直接竞争对手，这一点更是加剧了我的厌恶。
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 Rockets
What we learned from the Spurs win over the Rockets
I was tired before this game even started. I had just spent two straight days in 10 hours of meetings, and I was mentally done. It was my department’s annual meeting at work, and usually it’s a “destination” event. Sometimes it’s in San Antonio — yes to that! It’s my hometown, an easy drive from Houston, and the Riverwalk rocks. It’s been in Dallas before (no fun — longer drive and an uninteresting city in my opinion), but this year, it was going to be in Florida! (Fun, plus I haven’t been there since I was four years old!)
Regardless of where, it’s supposed to be anywhere but Houston since over half my department is here, with the rest scattered around the eastern half of the country, and the goal is to have everyone together where there’s dinner and bonding afterwards while no one can slip out and go home. It’s tiring, but I enjoy the bonding part of it (at least dinner, I’m not part of the crowd that goes drinking until 2AM just to be suffering through the next day of meetings).
However, for budgetary reasons, Florida got canceled, and the meeting was here in our downtown Houston office, with all the remote folks on conference call. Without being in a hotel, there was still the commute to and from work, making the day even longer, and I didn’t get to see coworkers from around the country whom I talk to often but am lucky to see in-person once a year. And for the cherry on top, this was the third year in a row the meeting was impacted by a winter storm, which ended up canceling Monday’s events and jamming everything into Tuesday and Wednesday. In other words, it was just two super long work days with the only plus being free breakfast and lunch.
After all that, an 8:30 Spurs-Rockets tip-off felt even more brutal than usual. Compound that with a horrible first 20+ minutes of action where the Spurs looked completely helpless — it felt like they weren’t even trying while the Rockets were slicing right through their defense on their way to a 16-point lead with 3:22 left in the first half — and I was ready to write a cranky WWL this morning. Longtime Pounders probably know I’m usually an optimist and try not to be too critical (they’re young, this is Mitch Johnson’s first full season as a head coach, give him a chance, etc.), but I wasn’t having it last night. Not after they showed a similarly atrocious effort in a home loss to the Pelicans a few days ago, and not after this issue with complacency and inconsistency has been going on for over a month now.
This was what I had to say while texting with Jeje Gomez and Jacob Douglas during the first half, right after a slew of Rockets offensive rebounds (including one where the ball bounced between three Spurs who were just watching before a Rockets player who was outside the play grabbed it) and careless backcourt turnovers: “I can give them (the Spurs) a grace period for stuff like shooting slumps, but poor effort and complacency is unforgivable. How many more ‘wake up call’ games do the need (before they get the memo)?”
Apparently, my superpower is the reverse jinx, because not long after that, they figured something out. They got more physical, stopped being careless with the ball, and started getting stops and rebounds. I was personally shocked that they were still in the game and only down by eight at the break, and in a reverse from last week’s game in Houston, the team that started hot fell off a cliff in the second half, especially the fourth quarter, and by then the Spurs were running over them so badly that even Kevin Durant was about to throw a fit.
The Spurs got Kevin Durant IN HELL pic.twitter.com/HQx4s0Z5DD
— Hater Report (@ HaterReport_) January 29, 2026
This is what we expect to see from this team: physical, hungry and determined. The second half brought me joy the same way the first half brought me frustration, and it turned this entire WWL on its head. Was this finally the wakeup call they will take to heart, or are we destined to be frustrated again if a Charlotte Hornets team currently playing well above its record catches them off guard on an early Saturday tip-off? We’ll find out then, but in the meantime, I’ll relish the win against a rival that I already saw as a scheduled loss, which seemed even more likely after 21 minutes of play.
Takeaways
- Just like this game and the Spurs as a whole, it was a tale of (almost) two halves for Stephon Castle. For the first 21 minutes, he was the frustrating version of himself: sporadic on defense, indecisive on offense, and leaving everyone clamoring for him to just let De’Aaron Fox have the ball-handling duties. Then, like everyone else, he flipped a switch and was the best version of himself by the second half. He guarded and annoyed the Rockets best players, from Kevin Durant to Alperen Sengun, and contributed on offense by not trying to do too much, simply taking the lanes the defense gave him and finishing at the rim. As he showed last night, he’s a game changer for the Spurs when everything is clicking, and now we just need to see it on a more consistent basis.
- I was ready to give Victor Wembanyama an equally hard time on here while watching the first half. He was passive and looked frustrated on both ends, which has been a common theme for him against physical teams like the Rockets. But perhaps my biggest concern was watching him get manhandled by the similarly slender Durant. Granted, Durant is a bit thicker with 4 extra pounds to cover at last 5 fewer inches (I still say Wemby is closer to 7’7” than 7’4”, but whatever), but he’s still 15 years older. While he’s still a very good player at age 37, he should not be pushing Wemby around on his way to the basket or preventing Wemby from doing the same on the other end. Fortunately, Wemby figured that out in the second half and picked up: attacking everyone on defense, blocking shots, and muscling his way to the rim for shots or free throws. To both Wemby and Castle: more of this, please.
- Our Editor-in-Chief J.R. Wilco has told me he feels the same way, but I have a passionate sports hate for Sengun, and I’m not even going to pretend like I don’t know why. I’m sure he is a great guy off the court, but man, I can’t stand watching him play basketball. He flops too much for such a big dude, he’s a Luka Doncic-level whiner with the same whiney face and “I’ve never committed a foul in my life but am fouled every time I touch the ball” attitude, and his body language is terrible. He’s an All-Star level player that I’m sure we would love if he was a Spur — we all know the mistake the Spurs made in drafting you-know-who ahead of him in 2021 — but ultimately, I’m glad he’s not. I just don’t like him, and it’s only compounded by him being on a direct rival.
By Marilyn Dubinski, via Pounding The Rock