By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-03-02 16:29:43
2026年3月1日，周日，在纽约举行的一场NBA常规赛下半场，纽约尼克斯队的米卡尔·布里奇斯 (Mikal Bridges)（左）对圣安东尼奥马刺队的维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)（中）犯规，布里奇斯与穆罕默德·迪亚瓦拉 (Mohamed Diawara)（51号）正试图争抢球权。(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
费城——一个月来，达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 第一次不需要为了盖过背景音乐而提高嗓门说话。11连胜终结了，NBA持续时间最长的赛后更衣室派对也随之结束。
当福克斯用低沉的语调指出，马刺可能确实需要像周日在纽约麦迪逊广场花园经历的那样一个下午，“来让（他们）回归现实”时？
这在实际意义上非常说得通。
毕竟，马刺的列车本就在地面运行。
就在这座世界最著名场馆的地下六层，福克斯和马刺全员在周一早上登上了他们的私人铁道车厢，前往费城，开启新时代的第一次冲刺阶段。
脚踏实地，刚刚经历了挫折，但或许他们仍有足够的实力重启派对。
尽管困难重重且超出了所有人的预期，马刺在赛季进入四分之三赛程的关键节点时，已然成为了争冠竞争者。这不是哪位报纸专栏作家的观点，而是由他们的战绩决定的。
但他们的战绩是否存在水分？在尼克斯主场遭遇的惨败是否揭露了某些令人不安的真相？既然已经回归现实，他们是否注定要在平庸中徘徊一段时间？
这些问题都不会在周二晚上对阵76人的比赛中得到最终定论。但我们或许能从接下来的比赛中找到另外一些问题的答案，比如：
马刺还会被对手“欺负”吗？
无论喜欢与否，这依然是全联盟对付马刺的“套路”，只要像尼克斯这样的强手能持续证明身体对抗策略奏效，这种论调就会一直存在。
你不想过度解读一场比赛，尤其是马刺在一个月的时间里通常能很好地应对身体对抗，而这场在纽约的午场比赛只是个意外。但尼克斯确实成功地通过推挤文班亚马让他远离舒适区，而这位身高7英尺4英寸的法国人也承认，他“感到很惊讶”，自己和队友们没能更好地处理这种粗野的对抗。
2026年3月1日，周日，在纽约举行的一场NBA常规赛下半场，纽约尼克斯队的乔什·哈特 (Josh Hart)（左）与圣安东尼奥马刺队的达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 倒地争抢地板球。(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
“他们是一支优秀的篮球队，但他们并不是那种最凶悍的球队，”文班亚马说道，“他们不是那种打球很难看的球队，但他们让我们的比赛变得很难看。”
在潜在的季后赛对手中，有几支球队——特别是休斯顿——无疑会尝试让比赛变得更加难看。在接下来的六周左右时间里，马刺需要制定出一套应对方案。
经验到底有多重要？
历史经验告诉我们，一个季后赛经验几乎为零的阵容，是不应该考虑争夺总冠军的。这不仅仅是因为这支球队刚刚走出长达六年的季后赛荒，马刺得分前七名的球员中有六人从未打过一场季后赛，而第七人（福克斯）也仅仅只打过一轮七场系列的系列赛。
尽管如此，马刺本赛季在关键场合的表现——无论是在NBA杯，还是在对阵俄克拉荷马城、丹佛和底特律的关键战中——都让人产生一种诱惑去相信：在雷霆之后群雄并起的局面下，今年或许就是这群缺乏经验的年轻人乱中取胜的一年。
对这个问题最有力的回答可能来自斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle)。他在年度最佳新秀之后的第二个赛季表现极其出色，但当赛历翻到4月时，他可能需要做出最大的调整。
当防守者回收并放他投篮时会发生什么？当他埋头冲向篮筐，却无法获得裁判在1月和2月（而非春季）通常会吹罚的哨声时，又会发生什么？
如果配角球员不是神射手，马刺还能赢吗？
当德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell)、朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 和凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 合计只投进5个或更少的三分球时，马刺的战绩是22胜10负。这还不算坏。但观察一下当这三人组的投射火力提升时，球队胜率的变化：
当瓦塞尔、尚帕尼和约翰逊合计至少投进6个三分时，马刺21胜7负；至少7个时，16胜5负；至少8个时，11胜2负；而当他们至少命中9个三分时，马刺的战绩是7胜1负。
没错，这些数据是精挑细选的，而且相关性并不总是等同于因果关系。但这些数字确实强化了一个观点：当马刺最优秀的侧翼角色球员能够通过投射拉开空间时，马刺赢球会变得轻松得多。
像周日那样，这三人在面对强队时在外线合计只有14投4中，这极大地压缩了文班亚马、福克斯和卡斯尔的容错空间。
尽管如此，文班亚马能让这些问题都变得无关紧要吗？
那些惊人的期待对他而言早已不新鲜。两年前，在他第一次造访费城时，他目睹了乔尔·恩比德 (Joel Embiid) 砍下70分，打破了威尔特·张伯伦 (Wilt Chamberlain) 保持的76人队史纪录。那天晚上，恩比德预言文班亚马未来“可能会打破威尔特保持的（NBA）100分纪录”。
如果文班亚马在周二晚上真的做到了，那也不能全怪恩比德，因为后者因斜腹肌拉伤缺阵。但关键在于，无论马刺本赛季到目前为止看起来多么不合逻辑，如果看到文班亚马再次挑战历史、引力和常识，没人会感到意外。
一场持续一个月的派对在周日戛然而止。文班亚马和他的球队回归了现实。
但他们可能不会在地面停留太久。
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：Having come back to earth, are Spurs ready to answer these questions?
Having come back to earth, are Spurs ready to answer these questions?
New York Knicks’ Mikal Bridges, left, fouls San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, center, while Bridges and Mohamed Diawara (51) try to get to the ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, March 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
PHILADELPHIA — For the first time in a month, De’Aaron Fox did not need to raise his voice to be heard over the music. An 11-game winning streak was over. So was the NBA’s longest-running postgame locker room party.
And when Fox noted, in a hushed tone, that the Spurs probably needed an afternoon like the one they endured Sunday at New York’s Madison Square Garden “to bring (them) back to earth?”
That made a lot of practical sense.
After all, the Earth is where their train was.
Six floors below the world’s most famous arena, Fox and Spurs boarded their private rail cars Monday morning, bound for Philadelphia and the first stretch run of a new era.
Grounded. Freshly humbled. And maybe good enough to restart the party anyway.
Against all odds and exceeding all expectations, the Spurs are hitting the season’s three-quarter pole as championship contenders. That’s not according to some newspaper columnist. It’s according to their record.
Is their record lying, though? Did a blowout loss to the Knicks expose any inconvenient truths? Now that they’ve come back to earth, are they bound to stay there a while?
None of those questions will be definitively resolved Tuesday night against the Sixers. But we might be about to get some answers to some others, such as:
Can the Spurs still be bullied?
Like it or not, that’s still the league-wide book on them, and it will continue to be as long as quality opponents like the Knicks keep proving it can work.
You don’t want to read too much into one game, especially a New York matinee following a month-long stretch in which the Spurs generally handled physicality pretty well. But the Knicks found success pushing Victor Wembanyama off his spots, and the 7-foot-4 Frenchman admitted he “was surprised” he and his teammates didn’t handle the rough stuff better.
New York Knicks’ Josh Hart, left, and San Antonio Spurs’ De’Aaron Fox dive for a loose ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, March 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
“They’re a good basketball team, but they’re not, like, the nastiest team,” Wembanyama said. “They’re not an ugly team to watch, but they made our game ugly.”
There are a couple of potential playoff opponents — Houston, in particular — who undoubtedly will try to make things even uglier. Over the next six weeks or so, the Spurs will need to develop a plan for responding.
How much does experience really matter?
History says a roster with the Spurs’ cumulative postseason naivete has no business thinking about playing for a title. It’s not just that the franchise is coming off a six-year playoff drought. Six of the Spurs’ top seven scorers never have appeared in a single playoff game, and the seventh (Fox) has played in a grand total of one seven-game series.
Still, the Spurs have performed so well in high-stakes situations this season — in the NBA Cup, and in marquee games against Oklahoma City, Denver and Detroit — that there’s a temptation to believe this might be the year when an untested group can take advantage of the apparent parity behind the Thunder.
The most telling answer to this question might come from Stephon Castle, who’s been spectacular in his Rookie of the Year follow-up season but might have to make the biggest adjustments when the calendar flips to April.
What happens when defenders back away from him and dare him to shoot? What happens when he puts his head down, barrels to the rim, and doesn’t get the fouls the officials tend to whistle in January and February, but not so much in the spring?
Can the Spurs win if the sidekicks aren’t sharpshooters?
When Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie and Keldon Johnson combine for five 3-pointers or fewer, the Spurs are 22-10. That’s not bad. But watch what happens to the winning percentage as that trio’s shooting output increases.
When Vassell, Champagnie and Johnson combine for at least six 3-pointers, the Spurs are 21-7. When they make at least seven, the Spurs are 16-5. When they make at least eight, the Spurs are 11-2. And when they make at least nine, the Spurs are 7-1.
Yes, these stats are cherry-picked. And no, correlation does not always equal causation. But the numbers do reinforce the idea that the Spurs have an easier time winning when their best role players keep defenders honest.
On days like Sunday, when they shot 4-for-14 from the arc as a group against a good team, it gives Wembanyama, Fox and Castle much less margin for error.
All that said, can Wembanyama make all of those questions irrelevant?
It’s not as though the preposterous expectations are new. Two years ago, on his first trip to Philadelphia, he watched Joel Embiid score 70 points to break Wilt Chamberlain’s Sixers franchise mark. That night, Embiid predicted that Wembanyama someday will “possibly break Wilt’s (NBA) record of 100 points.”
If Wembanyama does it Tuesday night, it won’t be Embiid’s fault. He’s out with a strained oblique. But the point here is that no matter how illogical this Spurs season has seemed so far, nobody would be surprised to see Wembanyama defy even more history and gravity and common sense.
A monthlong party stopped Sunday. Wembanyama and his team came back to earth.
They might not stay long.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News