By Jared Weiss | The Athletic, 2026-02-24 11:50:13
这是他们需要的正名之战。圣安东尼奥马刺队的冠军成色在抵达底特律时就已不言而喻，但底特律活塞队试图通过强悍的身体对抗将他们的竞争心击碎，旨在传递一个信号：季后赛级别的对抗将以马刺无法处理的方式干扰他们。
活塞队倾其所有，而马刺队给出了回应。随着维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 满血回归并摧毁了对手的每一次进攻，马刺以 114-103 再次击败这支联盟顶级球队，巩固了他们夺冠大热门的地位。
而这一切，发生在赛季初仅将目标定为打进季后赛的球队身上。
“这绝对是一个让我们确认了进步和潜力的夜晚，”文班亚马在底特律告诉记者，“这是一个很好的考验。”
文班亚马全场砍下 21 分、17 个篮板、6 次封盖、4 次助攻和 1 次抢断，打出了他本赛季最佳的防守表现之一。他干扰或直接扼杀在萌芽状态的投篮次数，恐怕才是他技术统计中最高的数字。他完成了职业生涯中最精彩的盖帽之一：在空中扭转手臂将球钉在篮板上并直接拿回球权，完成抢断。有一次，他甚至玩起了“躲猫猫”，躲在掩护者身后，突然跃入空中封盖了凯德·坎宁安 (Cade Cunningham) 的上篮。
一支伟大的球队迫使他变得更有创造力，而他抓住了时机。最重要的是，马刺再次证明了他们能够在季后赛级别的对抗中生存。
“我认为这绝对是身体对抗强度排名前五的比赛，”文班亚马说，“但考虑到未来和整个赛季，这支球队（活塞）可能是最擅长这种打法的。”
马刺主帅米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 表示，活塞对球队韧性的考验不亚于联盟中任何一支球队，这迫使马刺必须找到应对底特律能量的方法，并持续掌控比赛节奏。马刺已经证明，当阵中众多的后卫能够拉开速度奔跑时，他们可以赢下快节奏的比赛；而当文班亚马面对有利的对位冲击篮下时，他们也能赢下缓慢而有序的比赛。
“我们可以适应很多种不同的风格。无论对手打得快还是慢，我认为我们都能应对自如，”斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 说道，他的防守统治力让底特律的 MVP 候选人凯德·坎宁安全场仅 26 投 5 中。“进入比赛前，我们就知道这将是一场肉搏战，所以我们尝试去对位这种强度并成为进攻者，我认为我们做得很好。”
感叹号
Peacock pic.twitter.com/1CjXxKlJ0P
— 圣安东尼奥马刺队 (@ spurs) 2026年2月24日
像底特律和休斯敦火箭 (Houston Rockets) 这样的球队，用他们不懈的韧性和在每一次回合中“搞乱”比赛的意愿，给马刺带来了最大的考验。他们可以利用不同类型的身材去干扰文班亚马的进攻节奏，但他现在已经足够健康，能够挺过这些对抗，并在第四节找到自己的出手点。
马刺近期的一个明显趋势是，当进入第四节时，他们的能量会通过文班亚马加速。他在无球移动和创造更多传导球机会以寻找空位投手方面变得更加果断，同时有助于避免那种让他摔倒并消耗体力的碰撞。但这更多是为了在防守面前保持领先并创造空位。
这些空位投篮在本赛季对马刺来说并非信手拈来，但他们在周一晚上把握住了机会。这是对他们在关键时刻掌控比赛所付出努力的最好回报。
“我们非常有凝聚力，整场比赛都在努力破防，”文班亚马说，“我们试图让它回归篮球本身并得分，而唯一的办法就是分享球权。”
据马刺电台解说员丹·魏斯 (Dan Weiss) 称，马刺已经取得了九连胜——其中连续八场比赛以两位数分差获胜，这是队史第二长的此类连胜纪录。自从本月初球队因暴风雪受困夏洛特以来，他们一直在积分榜上势如破竹。目前马刺距离西部战绩第一的俄克拉荷马城雷霆 (Oklahoma City Thunder) 仅差 2.5 个胜场。
马刺在面对东西部前三种子的比赛中战绩为 8 胜 1 负。他们的净效率为 +6.7，位列全联盟第四，并且与雷霆是仅有的两支在进攻和防守两端均进入前六的球队。自 2026 年伊始，他们的净效率一直保持在联盟前五。
他们现在看起来就像是 NBA 最好的球队，并且有充分的理由被视为总冠军的热门人选。
在季后赛中，他们的解题能力和韧性还将面临重重挑战。随着文班亚马和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔承担更大的角色，他们在系列赛中面对经验丰富的球队时可能会陷入困境。但看看他们在休斯敦遭遇失利后，几周后文班亚马如何以统治级的表现做出回应。现在，他们又在底特律掌控了大半个下半场的比赛。他们对阵卫冕冠军雷霆的战绩是 4 胜 1 负，这向每一支季后赛球队展示了他们的优势。
在这场比赛中，文班亚马的护筐能力与达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 控球时的节奏掌控同样重要。德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 在上半场不可思议的投篮，以及斯蒂芬·卡斯尔对凯德·坎宁安极具影响力的防守也是关键。但最重要的是，这支团队能够持续向前推进。
“我不知道季后赛是什么样子的，”文班亚马说，“但我知道我们会需要这种精神。”
由生成式 AI 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：Victor Wembanyama, Spurs conquer Pistons' physicality, make case as title favorites
Victor Wembanyama, Spurs conquer Pistons’ physicality, make case as title favorites
This was the confirmation they needed. The San Antonio Spurs’ championship bona fides were set in stone when they arrived in Detroit. But the Pistons wanted to beat the contention out of them with a message that playoff physicality will disrupt the Spurs in a way they can’t handle.
The Pistons delivered. The Spurs responded. With Victor Wembanyama fully healthy and destroying every offense that comes his way, the Spurs’ 114-103 win over the NBA’s top team, yet again, positions them as the favorite to win the championship.
All of this for a team that said its goal was to make the playoffs at the onset of the season.
“It’s definitely a night where we confirmed progression and confirmed potential as well,” Wembanyama told reporters in Detroit. “That was a good test.”
Wembanyama, who finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds, six blocks, four assists and a steal, had one of his best defensive performances of the season. The number of shots he altered or downright nipped in the bud would probably be the highest digit in his box score. He had one of the most interesting blocks of his career, contorting his arm in the air to smack a shot off the backboard and back to himself to complete the turnover. At one point, he even played peekaboo, hiding behind a body before springing in the air to block a Cade Cunningham layup.
A great team forced him to get creative, and he met the moment. Most importantly, the Spurs showed once again they can survive playoff physicality.
“I think it’s definitely top five games most physical,” Wembanyama said. “But I think for the future and looking at the season overall, this is probably the team that is most capable of playing that way.”
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said the Pistons tested his team’s toughness as well as anyone in the league, forcing the Spurs to find ways to meet Detroit’s energy with resistance and consistently dictate the flow of the game. The Spurs have shown they can win up-tempo games when their plethora of guards can get out and run. They can win slow and methodical games when Wembanyama gets downhill against favorable matchups.
“We can play in a lot of different varieties. Whatever team plays fast, whatever team plays slow, I think we can play in a lot of different varieties,” said Stephon Castle, whose defensive dominance led to Detroit’s MVP candidate Cade Cunningham’s woeful 5-for-26 shooting night. “Coming into the game, we knew it was going to be a physical game, so we (tried) to match that and be the aggressor in that, and I thought we did a good job doing it.”
EXCLAMATION POINT
— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) February 24, 2026
Teams such as Detroit and the Houston Rockets have tested the Spurs most of all with their relentless tenacity and willingness to muck things up every possession. They can throw different types of size at Wembanyama to disrupt his offensive rhythm, but he is now healthy enough to fight through it and find his spots by the fourth quarter.
A clear trend as of late for the Spurs is when they get to the fourth quarter and their energy accelerates via Wembanyama. He has been more decisive moving off the ball and creating more swing-swing possessions to find open shooters, while helping to avoid collisions that send him to the floor and wear him down. But it’s more so just a way to stay ahead of the defense and create open looks.
Those open shots haven’t been automatic for the Spurs all season, but they knocked them down Monday night. It was a nice reward for all the work they put in to earn control of the game by crunch time.
“We were so connected and tried to fight against the wall the whole game,” Wembanyama said. “We tried to make it a basketball game and score the ball, and the only way to do it is to share it.”
The Spurs have won nine in a row — eight in a row by double digits, the second-longest such streak in franchise history, per Spurs radio play-by-play voice Dan Weiss. Ever since the team got stranded in Charlotte at the beginning of the month because of a snow storm, it has been on a tear toward the top of the standings. The Spurs now sit just 2.5 games back of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the best record in the West.
The Spurs are 8-1 against the top three seeds in each conference. They are fourth in the league in net rating at plus-6.7 and join the Thunder as the only team in the top six in offense and defense. And they’re in the top five in net rating since the start of 2026.
They look like the best team in the NBA right now, and can make a compelling case to be considered title favorites.
There will be plenty of challenges to their problem-solving and resilience in the postseason. With Wembanyama and Castle taking far bigger roles, they could find quicksand against experienced teams in a seven-game series. But look at how they responded to their first loss in Houston with a dominant Wembanyama performance a few weeks later. Now they’ve gone into Detroit and controlled the game for most of the second half. They are 4-1 against the defending champion Thunder and have shown every playoff team they have an edge.
In this game, it was Wembanyama’s rim protection as much as it was De’Aaron Fox’s tempo control with the ball in his hand. It was Devin Vassell’s incredible shooting in the first half and Castle’s impactful defense on Cunningham. More than anything, it was the group’s ability to keep pushing.
“I don’t know what the playoffs are like,” Wembanyama said. “But I know we’re going to need some of that.”
By Jared Weiss, via The Athletic