By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-02-05 16:47:21
圣安东尼奥马刺队 (San Antonio Spurs) 前锋维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) (1) 在2026年2月4日周三于圣安东尼奥举行的NBA常规赛上半场，对阵俄克拉荷马城雷霆队 (Oklahoma City Thunder) 的一次得分后做出反应。随着扬尼斯·阿德托昆博 (Giannis Antetokounmpo) 在交易截止日留在密尔沃基，马刺队在夺冠热门雷霆队之后的西部大乱斗中仍占有一席之地。(AP Photo/Eric Gay)
我们早就知道马刺队不会引进扬尼斯·阿德托昆博 (Giannis Antetokounmpo)。现在我们知道，他们也不必在季后赛中面对他了。
这位传闻中NBA交易市场上最顶级的球员并没有与斯蒂芬·库里 (Steph Curry)、安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 或凯文·杜兰特 (Kevin Durant) 联手。相反，在周四的交易截止日，他选择留在密尔沃基。这对至少三类人群来说是令人振奋的消息：
- 雄鹿队的球迷，他们可以继续为世界上最迷人的运动员之一喝彩。
- 播客主持人们，他们至少还可以花五个月的时间来推测那些可能永远不会发生的阿德托昆博交易。
- 那些并非完美的夺冠竞争者，他们现在环顾四周并意识到，也许竞争对手并非那样不可战胜。
几个月来，我们一直试图给这里的预期“降温”，尽管马刺队一直让维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 穿着 20.5 码的大脚踩在“即时满足”的油门上。
在常规赛即将过去三分之二之际，马刺队拥有联盟第三好的战绩。他们刚刚击败了卫冕冠军——或者至少是残阵的卫冕冠军——这是他们在五次交手中的第四次胜利。但传统观念和几十年的历史经验表明，他们还不是真正的竞争者。
至少今年还不是。
还太早了。
每支年轻球队都必须先跨越一道障碍，这与新秀在每年一月或二月遇到的“新秀墙”并无二致。
但关于这个个人障碍，19 岁的马刺后卫迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 本周说了一些可能也适用于他球队的话。
“那堵墙，”哈珀说，“是虚构的。”
我们拭目以待。
在哈珀发表评论两天后，他出现在了伤病名单上，而马刺队在即将离开弗罗斯特银行中心 (Frost Bank Center) 进行为期四周的客场之旅中，可能会迎来自己的残酷觉醒。
即使他们能昂首挺胸地度过这段“牛仔之旅”？即使他们保住了季后赛的主场优势，并稳居西部第二？
这并不一定意味着球迷可以指望球队在季后赛走得很远。正如我们几个月来一直在警告的那样，每一支伟大的球队和每一位伟大的球员，在学会如何成功之前，都必须经历赛季悬于一线时的失败。即使是蒂姆·邓肯 (Tim Duncan) 也未能幸免。
当他在职业生涯第一次季后赛打进第二轮，并在第二次就赢得总决赛时，邓肯身边至少围绕着身经百战的老将。
至于这支“进度超前”的马刺队？他们的五位核心球员进入今年季后赛时，职业生涯总共只打过一轮季后赛系列赛。追溯过去 50 年，你都找不到一支进入 NBA 总决赛的球队能有如此程度的青涩。
不过关键在于：梳理一下西部其他所有（除雷霆外）的竞争者名单，你会发现历史证据表明，他们可能也没准备好夺冠。而当周四交易截止日过去，他们中没有任何一人做出足以改变实力格局的举动时？
这并不意味着前五或前六名的每一支球队现在都有机会。但这让排除任何一个对手变得更加困难。
俄克拉荷马城雷霆 (Oklahoma City Thunder) 依然是绝对的热门。这一点几乎没有争议。尽管马刺曾四次击败雷霆，但如果在季后赛相遇，马刺仍将处于劣势，而且理由充分。
然而，他们并非不可战胜。去年春天，雷霆队曾两次被拖入抢七。伤病随时可能发生。如果他们遭遇霉运，总得有人来赢得西部冠军。
如果阿德托昆博最终去了明尼苏达、金州或休斯敦，那里就会出现明显的第二个威胁。
随着他留守原队，所有这些球队仍然比马刺拥有更丰富的经验和战术素养。丹佛掘金 (Denver Nuggets) 也是如此。这意味着，随着马刺接近我们预料中的“首赛季障碍”，保持克制并压低预期可能仍是明智之举。
但是，当他们在周四环顾四周，发现没有人让自己变得不可战胜时？
难怪马刺队会一直踩着油门。
那堵墙也许真的是虚构的。
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) and San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) talk after playing against each other at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. The Spurs defeated the Bucks, 119-109.
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) goes up to block a shot by Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) during the first quarter at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026.
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) signals to a teammate during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder in San Antonio, Wednesday, February. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) goes up for a shot around Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jaylin Williams (6) during the fourth quarter at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. The Spurs defeated the Thunder, 116-106.
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：Why Spurs aren’t limiting expectations despite playoff inexperience
Why Spurs aren’t limiting expectations despite playoff inexperience
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) reacts to a score against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the first half of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Wednesday, February. 4, 2026. With Giannis Antetokounmpo staying in Milwaukee at the trade deadline, the Spurs remain part of a wide open Western Conference behind the title favorite Thunder. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
We already knew the Spurs weren’t adding Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now we know they won’t have to go through him, either.
The best player supposedly on the NBA trade market did not join superstar forces with Steph Curry, or with Anthony Edwards, or with Kevin Durant. Instead, at Thursday’s deadline he stayed put in Milwaukee, which was uplifting news for at least three demographic groups:
- Bucks fans who get to keep rooting for one of the most spellbinding athletes in the world.
- Podcasters who get to spend at least five more months speculating about Antetokounmpo trades that might never happen.
- Imperfect championship hopefuls now looking around and realizing that maybe the competition isn’t so unbeatable after all.
For months, we’ve been trying to pump the brakes on expectations here, even as the Spurs kept slamming Victor Wembanyama’s 20.5-size shoe on the gas pedal of instant gratification.
Almost two-thirds of the way through the regular season, the Spurs have the third-best record in the league. They just beat the defending champions — or at least a shell of them — for the fourth time in five meetings. But conventional wisdom and decades of history maintained they’re not true contenders.
Not this year, anyway.
It’s way too soon.
There’s a barrier that every young team has to get through first, and it’s not unlike the one rookies encounter every January or February.
But in regard to that individual obstacle, 19-year-old Spurs guard Dylan Harper said something this week that might apply to his team, too.
“The wall,” Harper said, “is imaginary.”
We’ll see.
Two days after Harper made that comment, he landed on the injury report, and the Spurs might run into their own rude awakening during the four weeks they’re about to spend away from Frost Bank Center.
And even if they make it through the rodeo riding high? Even if they secure home-court advantage in the postseason and hold on to the second seed in the Western Conference?
That won’t necessarily mean fans should count on a long playoff run. As we’ve been warning here for months, every great team and every great player has to fail with a season on the line before they can learn how to succeed in that situation. Not even Tim Duncan was immune to that.
When he made it to the second round in his first playoff run and won the Finals in his second, Duncan at least was surrounded by big-game veterans.
As for these ahead-of-schedule Spurs? Their five most important players will enter this postseason with a grand total of one career playoff series between them. Go back 50 years and you won’t find an NBA Finals team even close to that level of inexperience.
Here’s the catch, though: Go through the list of every other (non-Thunder) contender in the West, and you’ll find historical evidence to suggest they might not be primed to win it all, either. And when the trade deadline came and went Thursday without any of them making a power-shifting move?
It didn’t mean that everybody in the top five or six has a chance now. But it became a lot more difficult to rule anybody out.
Oklahoma City remains the overwhelming favorite. There’s little dispute about that. Even though the Spurs beat the Thunder four times, they’d enter any potential playoff series as an underdog, and for good reason.
They are not, however, invincible. They were pushed seven games twice last spring. Injuries can happen. And if they run into some bad luck, someone else will have to win the West.
Had Antetokounmpo wound up in Minnesota, or in Golden State, or in Houston, there would have been an obvious second threat.
With him staying put, all of those teams still have more experienced talent and more know-how than the Spurs do. The Nuggets do, too. And that means that as the Spurs approach the first-season barrier we’ve all seen coming, it would probably wise to keep tapping the brakes on those expectations.
But as they looked around Thursday and noticed that nobody made themselves unbeatable?
It’s no wonder the Spurs kept their foot on the gas.
That wall might be imaginary after all.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News