Spurs Insider Podcast, 2026-03-04 12:27:00
专栏作家迈克·芬格 (Mike Finger) 与马刺跟队记者杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald) 和汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn) 讨论了马刺 11 连胜被纽约尼克斯队终结一事，以及这如何并未改变他们的上升轨迹——随着 NBA 季后赛的临近，马刺依然势头强劲。
推荐阅读：
马刺在 2 月取得 11 胜 0 负后包揽 NBA 西部月度奖项
马刺前锋哈里森·巴恩斯的 364 场连续出战“铁人”纪录终结
以下是播客实录：
[音乐渐入]
迈克·芬格 (Mike Finger)：这里是“马刺内幕 (Spurs Insider)”——连胜终结特别版，我们在北美各地高度机密的秘密地点为您播报。我是迈克·芬格，身边依然是《快报》的马刺跟队记者汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn) 和杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald)。我们进入了 3 月份。这意味着完美的 2 月已经结束。马刺在 2 月份打出了 11 胜 0 负的战绩。这一纪录周日在纽约的麦迪逊广场花园落下了帷幕，但他们已经准备好开启新的连胜。杰夫，这次牛仔客场之旅结束了，你感觉如何？我们进入了最后一天，马刺赛季的新篇章。杰夫·麦克唐纳，你现在的心理状态如何？
杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald)：和这帮本地篮球员一样，我准备回家了。再打一场，我们就能回家了。
迈克·芬格：我们在本地篮球员于博爱之城挑战费城 76 人队的当天进行节目录制。大家听到这一期时，比赛可能已经结束了，但总的来说，汤姆，对于圣安东尼奥马刺来说，这是一个非凡的月份。其中包括了全明星周末，还有一段漫长且被拆分的牛仔之旅，变成了好几次短途旅行，包括在奥斯汀的两场比赛。我们正处于 NBA 赛季四分之三的节点，马刺稳居第二。汤姆，对于这个节点的马刺，你的现状报告是什么？
汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn)：说实话，我对那波连胜起初有些怀疑，因为他们击败的球队要么缺兵少将，要么是像独行侠那样表现欠佳的球队。但嘿，我当时就在现场。就像我上周说的，他们击败了底特律，那是一场伟大的胜利。击败了多伦多，那也是一场漂亮的胜仗。然后尼克斯把他们教训了一顿。你们俩当时都在现场，他们是如何应对那次挫折的，只是暂时的退步吗？
迈克·芬格：很难为此感到焦虑，汤姆。那是纽约的一场周日午间场比赛，纽约队在这种比赛中历史上表现就不错，尤其是当客队必须在那个“不夜城”早起备战时。
他们直接被对手碾压了，这引发了许多关于这支球队未来的疑问：他们能应对强硬的对抗吗？当角色球员三分不准时，他们能赢球吗？面对一支深谙赢球之道的球队，他们能在高压下挺住吗？面对尼克斯，他们没能为这些问题给出好的答案。但别忘了，他们刚刚拿到了 11 连胜，而且正处于长达一个月的客场之旅末尾。既然他们已经在很长一段时间内赢下了那种类型的比赛，现在很难因为这一场就感到沮丧，或者以此否定他们的能力。
虽然这不会提高我们播客的听众数，但确实很难为连胜的终结而激动，因为在某种程度上，这只是向均值回归。杰夫，现在他们可以开始新的连胜了。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，尼克斯对马刺来说是个糟糕的对手。我是说，他们是那种可以在任何位置都摆出大个球员的球队。没多少球队能对上马刺的体型——有时马刺在后场拥有斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 等人的体型优势，但尼克斯能用体型压倒你。任何能摆出真正的四号位同时还能拉开空间的球队，都会让马刺陷入苦战，因为马刺并没有那样的四号位。
往好的一面看，除非马刺和尼克斯在总决赛相遇，否则这在季后赛里不会成为问题。如果真的走到了那一步，那马刺的表现已经非常出色了。这很大程度上取决于对位。他们面对尼克斯时的挣扎——无论是季中锦标赛还是这次客场之旅。马刺今年确实在圣安东尼奥赢过他们一次，但那场赢得很艰难，靠朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 投进 11 个三分球才拿下的。很多问题可以归结为尼克斯的建队方式正好击中了马刺的一些弱点。这不会发生在每支球队身上，甚至不会发生在每支强队身上，但在特定的对位中，尼克斯确实抓住了漏洞。
迈克·芬格：马刺一直让朱利安·尚帕尼打大前锋，他表现得非常出色——无论是篮板还是防守。他防守各种类型的球员。当他投进球时，马刺表现很好。德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 和凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 以及很多角色球员也是如此。当这些球员手感不佳时，他们的容错空间就会变小。
但我认为全联盟很多球队都是如此。没有人是完美的。我想你们也会同意，俄克拉荷马城雷霆仍然是西部的佼佼者，依然是头号热门。但现在很多人都在问一个问题，既然连胜已经结束，而各支球队都在为赛季最后六周的冲刺做准备：在经历了过去一个月的表现后，大家对这支马刺季后赛的预期改变了吗？或者你仍然认为这支球队在季后赛中必须在某个时刻“交学费”？杰夫，他们是西部名副其实的争冠者吗？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：这个问题我们在这个小播客里已经讨论好几个月了，对吧？我重申一下我上周说的：这支球队的赛季可能会在季后赛遇到一支深谙季后赛之道的球队时终结。
看起来马刺可能会——为了讨论方便，假设他们最终拿到了二号种子。他们第一轮可能会遇到一个能应付的对手。但到了第二轮，你会遇到一些更强、更有季后赛经验的球队。就像我们之前说的，这不仅仅是——季后赛强度会提升，你需要的准备工作也会升级。在一轮系列赛中，每一场比赛都有不同的特点。你需要进行多层次的调整。
米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 在这次客场之旅的前期被问到过类似问题，我觉得他回答的开头很有趣，他说主教练以前也没打过季后赛，他是在说他自己。所以，这支球队在进入系列赛时需要证明很多东西。我还是坚持我的看法：在西部季后赛的某个阶段，他们会遇到一个也许天赋并不比他们强、但有能力抗衡并能利用季后赛经验压制他们的对手。
我知道人们会说，“维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 打过大场面，他参加过奥运会，”或者“斯蒂芬·卡斯尔参加过最终四强并夺冠了。”他们确实经历过大场面。但系列赛和赛会制锦标赛是不同的。赢得七场四胜制系列赛所需具备的素质，只有身临其境才能学会。我依然坚持我的预测，他们最终会遇到一支能利用这一点的球队。但就像我上周说的，西部总得有人胜出，如果不是俄克拉荷马城，那会是谁呢？马刺绝对在讨论范围内。我只是需要眼见为实。如果他们能给我惊喜，那对他们来说是好事。
迈克·芬格：我意识到我们在这里有些重复，这些观点我们已经讨论几周了，但这就是 NBA 赛季的常态。每年的这个时候，球队开始为季后赛做准备，努力提升，话题也就转到了这里。我想听众每周都听同样的观点可能会觉得很无聊，但事实就是如此。
马刺在 3 月份能做的任何事情——无论是这周还是未来三周——都无法解决这些疑问，无法消除季后赛中的未知数。比如，假设马刺在第二轮遇到火箭，火箭直接退后一步，赌斯蒂芬·卡斯尔投篮而不让他杀入内线。当他在常规赛能反复突破冲击篮筐并走上罚球线时，如果到了季后赛裁判不再吹哨，会发生什么？
这些问题在 3 月 3 日是无法回答的。在那之前，我们只能推测。就像马刺上下——从米奇·约翰逊到维克托·文班亚马——所说的，他们能做的就是继续处理好眼前的任务。到目前为止他们做得很好，我认为这值得脱帽致敬，他们没有好高骛远。
正如杰夫和汤姆所见证的，队内氛围非常好。大家参与了这段客场之旅。球队真的很团结，赢球时总是这样。所以在季后赛到来之前，为什么要花太多精力去琢磨可能出什么差错呢？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：过去连续七年的 3 月，我们都没经历过这些。在那七年里，到了 3 月你总是会想，“好吧，赶紧结束这部分赛程吧。”对于球迷和像我们这样的评论员来说，那时没什么可聊的。你处于一种等待状态，等着看对阵情况，等着季后赛开始。
我回想起去年 3 月，还有前年 3 月，我们讨论的话题。那时有很多毫无意义的比赛，只谈论球员成长。我们可能已经在讨论休赛期谁走谁留了。而现在，我们处于一种“徘徊模式”，等待着季后赛开打。
迈克·芬格：汤姆，虽然我知道马刺誓言绝不这样做，但在某种程度上，这个播客“跳步”了。在马刺这种“千锤百炼”的文化中，这可是大忌。你不应该跳步。但一支球队播客的正常运作方式应该是：在经历了杰夫所说的那些只能讨论未来的 3 月和 4 月之后，应该经历一个球队取得进步但仍有明显漏洞和挣扎的 3 月和 4 月。如果马刺走的是一条正常的进步之路，我们这个月应该在讨论，“他们如何才能修复 2、3 月份暴露的致命伤？”以及“他们如何克服迟早会到来的连胜后的低迷？”
马刺赢球赢太多了，以至于我们无法分析任何缺陷。缺陷除了在周日下午一点对阵尼克斯这种随机比赛外，几乎没有显现过。所以我们跳过了中间那个步骤。我们直接从讨论一支乐透球队跳到了讨论一支争冠球队。汤姆，我不确定，这算是个问题吗？
汤姆·奥斯本：嗯，是的。去年的这个时候，我们可能在大谈特谈选秀。所以这完全是不同的性质。是的，前面提到的“眼前艰巨的任务”很快就会变得更艰难。主场赛程将从底特律活塞开始，然后是快船、火箭。我也跳步了，迈克。我知道我们喜欢在播客最后做这个。
迈克·芬格：没关系，继续。有趣的是，对手越来越强，但你在主场打球，这是一种优势。
汤姆·奥斯本：底特律、快船、火箭、波士顿、丹佛、夏洛特。这是一段很难啃的赛程。我们会发现更多东西。
迈克·芬格：你们的本地篮球员今年主场战绩是 21 胜 6 负。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我是个悲观主义者，我会觉得，“哦，虽然你可以回家了，但看看你要打哪些球队。”我不是看它变得更难还是你可以回家。我的反应是：在漫长的客场之旅后，你就回主场打这些对手？一回来就是背靠背对阵底特律和快船，这可真是一份沉重的“回家礼”。
迈克·芬格：既然我们在展望季后赛，有一件事：马刺已经稳居第二名了，我看不到变动的可能。在录音时，他们落后雷霆 3 场球。汤姆和杰夫刚刚解释了为什么在接下来的主场赛程中，想要反超那支强大的雷霆队是多么困难。同时，他们领先第三名的火箭 5 场，在接下来的 20 场比赛中，除非出现巨大的滑坡，否则他们不会掉到火箭后面。所以我感觉二号种子的位置虽然还没定死，但已经很稳了。
这意味着你在关注潜在的第一轮对手，也就是第七种子，目前有三个热门候选。我想听听你们对这三个对阵的看法，有什么吸引你们的地方？毕竟《快报》已经七年没报道过季后赛首轮了。这三支球队是：菲尼克斯太阳、金州勇士，还有洛杉矶快船。关于这三个潜在对手，最能勾起你们兴趣的是什么？
汤姆·奥斯本：勾起兴趣……我都很喜欢。
迈克·芬格：汤姆，你是在从差旅的角度考虑。这可是个篮球播客。
汤姆·奥斯本：不，是对决很有趣。我都喜欢。我很期待最后那个——科怀 (Kawhi)。那太棒了。是的，会很好看。那绝对是一场大戏。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：回想一下——马刺今年在面对全员太阳时吃过苦头，这大家都知道。狄龙·布鲁克斯 (Dillon Brooks) 似乎是全联盟给维克托带来麻烦最多的人。勇士——马刺今年两次对阵有斯蒂芬·库里 (Steph Curry) 的勇士，他在霜银中心手感热得发烫。那会是一轮有趣的系列赛。嗯，作为看客很有趣，但如果你是马刺，对阵库里可不一定有趣，哪怕他的球队没那么出色。
快船很有趣，不仅是因为科怀，还因为他们开局好像是 6 胜 21 负左右。他们已经成为联盟中状态最火热的球队很长一段时间了。我觉得他们现在的胜率快回到 50% 了。
迈克·芬格：我很高兴你提到了这一点，因为这正是我想说的——尽管马刺处于有利位置，有望以西部二号种子的身份获得主场优势，但这每一个马刺理应占优的对阵，都存在让人“倒吸一口冷气”的理由。面对谁都不能保证稳赢。太阳给马刺制造了不少麻烦——虽然我认为马刺绝对占优，但就像杰夫说的，对位上有问题。然后你还得面对斯蒂芬·库里和科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard)，而且快船在过去两个月里一直是联盟中表现最好的球队之一。
我想说的是，即使马刺在季后赛中形势大好，他们也是一支从未有过季后赛经验的球队。只要输掉一场比赛——我们都报道过季后赛，虽然那是很久以前的事了，但在七场四胜制的系列赛里，只要一场球，“天哪，我们之前想的全错了。”然后你必须一场接一场地调整。我们会看看他们如何应对。但无论谁来圣安东尼奥，今年季后赛都充满了悬念和吸引力。我认为马刺能赢得这些系列赛，但过程会比人们想象的更艰难。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我认为这是一个中肯的分析。
迈克·芬格：说到分析，杰夫，你在这次客场之旅中为《快报》写了不少文章——哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes)、朱利安·尚帕尼。我们也聊到了达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)。对于那些表现亮眼或者马刺球迷特别感兴趣的人，有什么让你印象深刻的吗？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我觉得尚帕尼在布鲁克林的那场比赛很有趣。那是他以前常去的地方。他说他是在距离巴克莱中心三站地铁的地方长大的。我觉得这故事很酷。这虽然不是他第一次在那儿打球或打好球，但他告诉我，这是他第一次作为真正的“NBA 球员”回去。你可以想象，几年前，他还只是一个落选秀，拼命想挤进 NBA 轮换。
但他今年回去时，不仅仅是一名 NBA 球员，还效力于联盟顶级强队并担任首发。然后他拿了 26 分，投进 6 个三分，带队击溃了那支他家门口的球队。那对他来说是个开心的夜晚，我也为他感到高兴。
迈克·芬格：这次东部之旅还有另一个有趣的相遇——我们在此做个总结。这可能是我们最后一次提到这位长期的“马刺内幕”播客常客了，我们需要一点仪式感。杰夫和我周日中午在纽约尼克斯的主队更衣室里偶遇了一位老朋友：杰里米·索汉 (Jeremy Sochan)。杰夫，尽管他那场比赛没怎么上场，但他看起来心情不错。他很高兴见到圣安东尼奥来的熟人。你可以给听众讲讲他的近况，他看起来心态很平和。这可能是最后一次聊他了，算是画个句号。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：那里的人似乎很喜欢他，尽管他没怎么上场——至少他们场面上是这么说的。但如果你处于索汉的处境，今年就要成为自由球员，现在到了第二支球队却依然在坐冷板凳——他在对阵马刺的那场比赛里，直到第四节分差被拉开后才上了两分钟——我认为你肯定会担心职业生涯的下一步。马刺去年夏天和截止日前两次尝试交易你，却找不到愿意付出筹码的人。
所以对他来说，这肯定是个有些焦虑的时期。但就像你说的，他在尼克斯更衣室见到大家非常开心。圣安东尼奥的媒体团特意穿过麦迪逊广场花园——我们很少去那一侧——来到尼克斯更衣室欢迎他。
迈克·芬格：我们对他的欢迎，可比文班在比赛中把他手拍开时要热情多了。我记得当时文班在底角准备投三分，索汉伸手想防止文班撞到替补席，文班直接把他拨开了。事后文班说不管那是谁，“我不希望任何人碰我。”那很有趣。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，他后来也笑了。索汉挺好的。你可以想象，在赛季中期突然搬家，他还没法完全在纽约安顿下来。他说他刚搬进一个住处，之前一直住酒店。你没法把所有家当都搬走，所以他最近一直靠着几个手提箱生活。他说他的狗留在圣安东尼奥了，所以他依然和那里有联系，但他已经开始了新生活。他说，生活节奏太快了。
迈克·芬格：他在圣安东尼奥保留这些是合理的，至少要观察到赛季结束，因为他夏天还是受限制自由球员。他会留在纽约吗？我们拭目以待。
索汉还向迈克·芬格的母亲表达了问候，我觉得这太棒了。他证实了我母亲的线报——在他签约尼克斯两天后，他在 HEB 药房被偶遇了。他说我母亲是一位非常迷人的女性，并说了些好话，这很贴心。我很享受那个时刻。他说，“代我向你母亲问好。”
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我觉得索汉是那种喜欢切尔西酒店的人，非常有波希米亚风格。
迈克·芬格：也许吧。他在纽约的另一个高光时刻是马刺在耐克总部训练。对于 BlueSky 上的粉丝（我们不偏袒任何社交平台），我们发了一些训练场的照片。那解释了为什么我们叫这支球队“笼中斗士 (cagers)”。耐克在那里有一个铁丝网围起来的复古球场。汤姆在几十年前入行时，那些标题撰写者会管篮球队叫 cagers，因为他们以前确实在笼子里打球。所以看到维克托·文班亚马和这帮本地篮球员在约翰·汤普森球场的铁笼里打球很有趣。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，那是乔治城大学教练的名字。
迈克·芬格：汤姆·奥斯本的朋友约翰·汤普森。我知道汤姆多年前在最终四强采访过他，对吧？
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，他在那次采访中脾气相当暴躁。
迈克·芬格：那天在耐克总部脾气可一点都不暴躁的是马刺主帅米奇·约翰逊，他现在可是红人。他是联盟最火热球队的主帅，身处世界媒体中心，各种全国性媒体都跑来找他。他耐心地握手、接受采访。
有一点让我觉得很有趣：当其他人都走了，我问他，你是否享受这种关注，毕竟执教这样的球队意味着更多的额外责任？他主动提到了一顿晚餐，是 2021 年全明星赛前的一顿饭。
当时他加入格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 的教练组才一两年。在那顿饭上，有人指出马刺可能是联盟中唯一一支在全明星周末没有任何代表的球队。没有全明星，没有三分射手，没有扣将，没有教练。你可能会觉得波波和马刺文化不在乎这些，但米奇说那件事让他深受触动。他说那是他的一个低谷时刻，因为从波波往下，大家都觉得很沮丧——这支曾拥有蒂姆·邓肯、大卫·罗宾逊、乔治·格文、马努·吉诺比利和托尼·帕克并赢得过这么多冠军的球队，竟然不再拥有全明星了。就像 NBA 不再谈论马刺了。
米奇当时说，“我再也不想回到那种境地了。”所以他说，既然赢球带来了关注、期待和额外责任，他愿意接受一百次。我觉得这是一个很酷的视角，也说明了这支球队在短短五年内的氛围发生了多大的变化。那时你不知道是否还会再拥有全明星，而现在他们拥有全世界最受欢迎的球星之一，是冠军争夺者，每个人都想和他们聊聊。
汤姆·奥斯本：从人性的角度来看也很有趣——迈克，读你那篇专栏时我也在想——米奇当时可能觉得，“嘿，我是新来的，也许这也有我的责任。”这虽然很荒谬，但确实是人之常情。
迈克·芬格：确实如此。他感受到了一种责任，要去延续波波维奇、R.C. 布福德 (R.C. Buford) 和整个马刺团队建立了几十年的传统。但他刚到那里，球队就不再赢球，不再进季后赛，没人去全明星。
汤姆，你知道很多黑帮电影——无论是《教父》、《黑道家族》还是《好家伙》——开头都有那句名言：那些感觉自己是在某些事情终结时才加入的人。就像我们做体育报道的，总觉得是在黄金时代的尾声才入行，错过了好东西。米奇对马刺也有那种感觉：“我错过了好东西吗？好东西不再回来是我的错吗？”
我认为这是一种很容易引起共鸣的情绪。你加入了一个你向往的领域，却会想，“在我来之前是不是更好？”听到米奇这么说很有趣，虽然他没用这些原话，但我捕捉到了那个意思。他曾怀疑自己错过了好时代。而现在，好时代回来了。
汤姆·奥斯本：我们每个人的生活里都需要一个文班。[笑声] 我喜欢那个想法：“我们不再赢球了，一定是那个 G 联盟助教的错。”没错。
迈克·芬格：还有一件事值得听众注意。走访全联盟，你会发现其他球队的人以及全国媒体对米奇和他的团队，包括肖恩·斯威尼 (Shaun Sweeney)，都充满了敬意。大家给了他们极大的肯定。不仅仅是“因为有了文班才赢球”。篮球圈内人士开始意识到，这支球队的执教水平非常高。
说到这，我们要再次感叹 2 月份的表现有多棒。就在今天，迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 被评为月度最佳新秀，维克托·文班亚马是月度最佳防守球员。虽然还没正式公布，但我猜……插播一条新闻：米奇·约翰逊——我正想说呢，这时机抓得太准了！邮件刚发出来，米奇·约翰逊当选月度最佳教练。当你打出 11 胜 0 负时，这几乎是板上钉钉的。马刺几乎横扫了所有奖项。这就是他们的 2 月。这是米奇第二次获得月度最佳教练。他们一定做对了某些事情，这是由联盟颁发、由同行认可的，不仅仅是记者在吹捧。
汤姆·奥斯本：没错。
迈克·芬格：既然提到了迪伦·哈珀，他拿到了月度最佳新秀。对于他的进步，大家需要了解什么？我相信这是他作为马刺球员表现最好的一个月。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，绝对是。他在成长。他会有起伏，他在麦迪逊广场花园的首秀并不理想，但马刺全队那场都不太行。但总的来说，整个 2 月，他都在飞速进步。看起来他已经渡过了我们之前担心的“新秀墙”阶段。他在攻防两端都为球队贡献良多。虽然他还没到终结每场比赛的程度，但教练组开始在关键时刻信任他，考虑到阵中还有福克斯和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔，这已经很有说服力了。他是球队冲刺季后赛的重要 X 因素。
迈克·芬格：汤姆，在播客里谈论周二晚上的比赛就像在谈论古代史，因为那距离我们录制已经过去一周了。但一周前在多伦多的那场比赛，是迪伦·哈珀表现最出色的时刻之一，对吧？
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，那场他非常有侵略性。但我最喜欢的一点是，赛后他们罚球表现很糟糕，文班、福克斯在最后时刻都罚丢了，福克斯整场罚球都很离谱。但迪伦是唯一一个把这事放在心上并感到非常困扰的人。他说那是他职业生涯射术最烂的一次，“绝不能再发生，我真的很抓狂。”而文班和米奇则觉得，“嘿，这很正常，联盟总有起伏，向前看吧。”那是个很棒的瞬间。
迈克·芬格：他当时在自己两罚不中后，还冲过去抢到了进攻篮板，是吗？
汤姆·奥斯本：没错。文班和珀尔特尔在争球，他突然切入抢到了球。那是典型的“马努式”表现——你搞砸了一些事，然后立刻救赎。后来福克斯被送上罚球线，大家想“好吧，这下稳了”，结果福克斯两罚全丢。他身上也有马努那种劲儿，会进行迅速的自我鞭策，自责一秒钟，然后迅速给出回应。
迈克·芬格：一切都渐入佳境。我们会看看接下来一周的情况。接下来有很多主场比赛。打完这波主场，我们会对他们有更多了解。尽管我在牛仔之旅前也说过同样的话，但就像我们说的，接下来五六场比赛的对手强度很大。
汤姆·奥斯本：从 23 号打底特律开始，他们就处于这段艰难赛程的中段了。如果能挺过去，他们的处境会非常非常理想。
迈克·芬格：我们先排除掉 76 人队的比赛，因为有些人听这期节目时比赛已经打完了。我们不想因为给错答案而显得像个白痴。我们可以因为别的原因像白痴。
在下次录音前，还有四场主场比赛：活塞、快船、火箭和凯尔特人，都在霜银中心。这四支球队都在争夺季后赛席位。你们怎么看？
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，我敢肯定底特律和波士顿都觉得欠马刺一场球。所以我预测是两胜两负。这很难打，我猜赢的是快船和火箭吧。汤姆·奥斯本，我可是说得很具体了。
迈克·芬格：我明白，我知道你不喜欢这样，迈克。
汤姆·奥斯本：不，我喜欢。这让你变得负责且透明。在今天这个时代，谁能反对透明呢？
迈克·芬格：杰夫，你觉得这四场结果如何？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我也表现得大方一点，预测对半开。但我不会像汤姆那样透明。不不，我是很模糊的。
迈克·芬格：好吧，就是这样了。客场之旅结束了，这里没有大团圆结局，也没有励志演讲。你只想完成工作，然后回家。本周就聊到这里。大家互相照顾，保持真实。
[音乐渐弱]
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：How Spurs proved they are NBA title contenders
How Spurs proved they are NBA title contenders
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss the Spurs winning streak ending at 11 games to the New York Knicks and how it doesn’t change their trajectory, which keeps heading up as the NBA heads toward the playoffs.
Suggested reading:
Spurs sweep NBA’s monthly West awards after going 11-0 in February
Having come back to earth, are Spurs ready to answer these questions?
Spurs forward Harrison Barnes’ iron man streak of games played ends at 364
Why the Spurs’ Luke Kornet wants the Hawks to cancel a promotion
NBA announces TV broadcast changes for two Spurs games in March
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
[music fades in]
Mike Finger: From a highly secure network of top-secret local locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider, end-of-the-streak edition. I’m Mike Finger, joined as always by Express-News Spurs beat reporters Tom Orsborn and Jeff McDonald. We’re coming at you in March. That means that the perfect month of February is over. The Spurs went 11-0 during the month of February. That finally came to an end at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday, but they’re ready to start a new streak. Jeff, how are you feeling at the end of this rodeo trip? We’re into the final day, a new chapter of the Spurs season. Where are you mentally now, Jeff McDonald?
Jeff McDonald: Much like the local cagers, I’m ready to go home. One more game, then we can go home.
Mike Finger: We are recording this on the day that the local cagers take on the Philadelphia 76ers here in the City of Brotherly Love. You might not be able to listen to this until after that game is concluded, but as a whole, Tom, it was quite a month for the San Antonio Spurs. It included All-Star festivities, it included a long, kind of segmented rodeo trip, which became a bunch of small trips, including a couple games in Austin. We’re at the three-quarter pole of the NBA season and the Spurs are kind of entrenched in second place. What’s the status report of the Spurs at the three-quarter pole, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: Well, I went into that winning streak a little skeptical because they were beating teams that were banged up, hurt, or some subpar teams like the Mavericks. But hey, I was there. Like I said last week, they beat Detroit, that was a big win. Beat Toronto, that was a good win also. And then the Knicks kind of chewed them up. You guys were there for that. How did they handle that, just a temporary setback?
Mike Finger: It’s hard to get worked up about it, Tom. It’s a Sunday matinee in New York, which automatically has—I think the Knicks do pretty well historically in those when the road team is having to get up early in the city that never sleeps.
They just got steamrolled, and a lot of the questions that you have about this team moving forward in terms of, can they handle physicality? Can they win when their role guys aren’t hitting three-pointers? Can they hold up under the pressure against a team that knows what it’s doing? They didn’t provide good answers for any of those questions against the Knicks, but also they’d won 11 games in a row and were at the very end of a month-long road trip. It’s hard to be too upset or to consider it too indicting of their abilities when they’d gone so long winning those types of games.
This isn’t going to boost the Spurs Insider listenership numbers, but it’s just hard to get worked up about the end of that winning streak because it’s regression to the mean at some point. And now they can start a new streak, Jeff.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, the Knicks are just a bad matchup for the Spurs. I mean, they are one of those teams that can put size everywhere on you. Not a lot of teams can match up—sometimes the Spurs have the advantage with size in the backcourt with Stephon Castle and guys like that, but the Knicks can overwhelm you with size. Any team that can play like an actual four-man against you and still be able to spread the floor is going to give the Spurs a tougher matchup, as they don’t really have that kind of four-man.
If you look on the bright side, the only way that becomes an issue in the playoffs is if the Spurs and Knicks meet in the Finals, and then you’re doing pretty good if you’re the Spurs. But a lot of it is matchup-dependent. A lot of their struggles with the Knicks, both in the NBA Cup and on this road trip—and the Spurs did win a game against them in San Antonio this year, but that one was tough. That took 11 Julian Champagnie three-pointers to pull off. A lot of it can be traced to the Knicks being built in a way that exposes some of the Spurs’ weaknesses. That won’t happen against every team, it won’t even happen against every good team, but specifically in that matchup, the Knicks have some things that they can exploit, and they did.
Mike Finger: Spurs have been getting away with playing Julian Champagnie basically at power forward, and he’s done a really admirable job of doing it—the rebounding, his defense. He defends a variety of players. When he’s hitting his shots, the Spurs do pretty well. Same with Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson; a lot of those role guys. When those guys aren’t hitting, they have a little less margin for error.
But I think that’s true of a lot of teams around the league. Nobody’s perfect. Oklahoma City, I think you guys would agree, is still the class of the West, still the odds-on favorites. But a question that a lot of people are asking these days, now that this winning streak has come to an end and teams are honing in on the stretch run here in the last six weeks of the season, is: have the expectations of this Spurs team in the postseason changed after the last month they’ve had? Or do you still think this is a team that is going to have to take its lumps in the postseason at some point? Are they a legitimate contender in the Western Conference, Jeff?
Jeff McDonald: That’s a question we’ve been kind of debating on this little podcast show for months now, right? I’ll reiterate what I said last week: this team’s season probably ends somewhere in the playoffs when they run into a team that knows what the playoffs are all about.
It looks like the Spurs are going to be—let’s just for argument’s sake say they end up with that two seed. They’re probably going to play someone in the first round that they can handle. But then you get to the second round, you get some of these teams that are a little better, but also have that playoff experience. And it’s not just—we’ve said it before—the intensity goes up, the level of preparation you need goes up. Each game takes on a different personality in a playoff series. There are levels of adjustments that have to be made.
I did think Mitch Johnson was kind of asked that question earlier on this road trip, and I thought the start of his answer was kind of funny to me too because he said the coach hasn’t been there before either, talking about himself. So, there’s just a lot of things this team will have to prove when it gets in a playoff series. I’m still going to stick with: at some point in those Western Conference playoffs, they’re going to run into someone who might not even be a more talented team than them, but has the talent to hang and can also impose that playoff experience on the Spurs and get by them.
I know people will say, “Well, Victor Wembanyama’s been in big games before, he was in the Olympics for God’s sake,” or “Stephon Castle played in a Final Four championship and won it.” They’ve been in big games before. But it’s different when you have to go through a series as opposed to a tournament-type situation. The things that go into winning a seven-game series are the things you can only learn by being there. I’m still going to stand by my prediction that at some point they’re going to run into a team that can exploit that. But as I also said last week, somebody’s got to win the Western Conference, and if it’s not Oklahoma City, then who is it? The Spurs are definitely in that conversation. I just kind of have to see it to believe it. If they want to surprise me, that’s good for them.
Mike Finger: I realize we’re being repetitive here, and we’ve had these same thoughts for a few weeks now, but it’s kind of the beast that is the NBA season. This is the time of year when teams start getting ready for the playoffs, trying to build towards something, and the conversation shifts into this. I assume it can be really boring for people to hear the same takes every week, but it’s just one of those things.
There’s nothing that the Spurs could do, let’s say this week in March or the next three weeks in March, that would resolve any of these questions, that would resolve the unknown as to what’s going to happen when the Spurs, let’s say, get into a series with the Rockets in the second round and they just step back and dare Stephon Castle to shoot and not let him inside. And when Stephon Castle starts putting his head down and getting to the rim like he does over and over and over so well throughout the regular season, what’s going to happen when he doesn’t get the foul calls that officials tend to give in the regular season but don’t whistle in the postseason?
Those are just unanswerable questions on March the 3rd. All we can do is speculate until then. And as the Spurs have said—Mitch Johnson, Victor Wembanyama, on down the line—all they can do is just continue to try to handle the task at hand. That’s what they’ve done so far, and I think that’s worth tipping your hat to, that they haven’t gotten ahead of themselves.
The vibes have been very good, Jeff, as you can attest to. Tom as well; everybody’s covered a part of this road trip. Team really seems together, which happens when you’re winning. And so until the playoffs come, why dwell too much about on what might go wrong, right?
Jeff McDonald: We haven’t been here for seven straight Marches. It’s been seven straight Marches where in March you’re kind of like, “Okay, let’s get on with it,” for this part of the season. For the fans and pundits such as ourselves, there’s not a lot to talk about. You’re in a kind of waiting, a holding pattern waiting to see what the matchup is and get the playoffs started.
I think back to like last March, the March before that, and the things we were talking about. It was a lot of meaningless games, but development. We were probably already talking about the offseason and who goes, who stays. Now we’re just kind of in a hover mode waiting for the playoffs to start.
Mike Finger: Well, this podcast, Tom—I know the Spurs vow never to do this, but in a way, the podcast skipped some steps, which is a cardinal sin in the “pound the rock” Spurs culture. You’re not supposed to skip steps. But the way a team podcast is supposed to work is, after the years of, as Jeff said, spending March and April talking about the future, there’s supposed to be a March and April where the team has taken a step forward, but there are still obvious holes and there are still struggles. If the Spurs had taken a normal path to progress, we’d be spending this month talking about, “Well, how can they fix whatever is killing them here in February and March?” and “How can they overcome this losing streak that was bound to come at some point?”
The Spurs have been winning too much for us to analyze any of the flaws. The flaws haven’t really presented themselves other than in random games against the Knicks at one o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. So we’re skipping that step of the in-between. We went from talking about a lottery team to talking about a championship contender. I don’t know, is that a problem, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: Well, yeah, right now, I guess this time last year we might have been talking about the draft a lot. So it’s a whole different animal. Yeah, the aforementioned tough task at hand gets pretty tough coming up here. Detroit—that home stand starts with Detroit, Clippers, Houston. I’m skipping a step here, Mike. I know we like to do this at the end of the podcast.
Mike Finger: No, no, it’s fine. What’s interesting about that is the opponents are getting better, but you’re playing at home, which is an advantage.
Tom Orsborn: Detroit, Clippers, Houston, Boston, Denver, Charlotte. That’s a pretty tough road to hoe. So we’ll find out some more things.
Mike Finger: 21 and 6 at home this year, your local cagers.
Jeff McDonald: Me being the glass-half-empty person, it’s just like, “Oh, you get to go home,” but look at the teams you have to play against. I look at it that way, not like it’s getting tougher but you get to go home. I’m like, you get to go home to that? After this long road trip, you get to go home and it starts with a back-to-back against Detroit and the Clippers. That’s a tough welcome home.
Mike Finger: Here’s the thing since we’re looking at a new way to look forward to the playoffs. The Spurs have kind of settled into that two spot, and I don’t see it changing. They’re three games—at the time of this recording, they’re three games behind the Thunder. Tom and Jeff have just explained why it’s going to be tough to make another charge even during the home stand to overcome that against a really good Thunder team. They’re five games ahead of the third-place Rockets, and it’s going to take a big slump for them to slide behind the Rockets in the next 20 games. So I feel like that two is not a sure thing yet, but pretty settled.
That means you’re looking at potential first-round opponents in the seventh seed, and there are three top candidates for that. I’m going to get you guys’ opinion on these three matchups, what you like about them, what you might be interested in about them in terms of covering the playoffs for the first time—the Express-News has covered a first-round playoff series in seven years. You have your Phoenix Suns, your Golden State Warriors, and then there’s this one: the Los Angeles Clippers. What peaks your interest about those three potential first-round opponents?
Tom Orsborn: Peaks my interest… I like them all.
Mike Finger: You’re thinking from a travel standpoint, Tom. This is a basketball podcast.
Tom Orsborn: No, fun matchups. I like all of them. I like that last one a lot, Kawhi. That’d be great. Yeah, it’d be fun to watch. That would be something.
Jeff McDonald: Think back to—the Spurs have had trouble with Phoenix this year when Phoenix has been at full strength, like famously. Dillon Brooks is the guy in the league that gives Victor the most issues, it seems. Golden State—the two times the Spurs have played them with Steph Curry, he went nuclear in the Frost Bank Center. That’d be a fun series. Well, it’d be fun to watch. If you’re the Spurs, I don’t know if it’s super fun to play a first-round series against that guy, even if his team’s not that great.
The Clippers are interesting from the Kawhi standpoint, and also they started like 6 and 21 or something like that. So they’ve been the hottest team in the league for a long time to climb out of that. I think they’re almost back to .500 now.
Mike Finger: I’m glad you got there, because this is my kind of my point, my idea in bringing it up—that even though the Spurs are well-positioned to enter the playoffs with home-court advantage as the number two seed in the West, each of those matchups, which the Spurs should be favored in, present some reasons to be like, “Oof.” Things aren’t guaranteed against any of those. The Suns have provided a lot—I think the Spurs are overwhelming favorites against the Suns, but the Spurs have had some issues matching up, as Jeff said. And then you have Steph Curry and Kawhi Leonard, and a Kawhi Leonard on a team that has been one of the better teams in the conference for the past two months.
All of this is a way to say that even if the Spurs are well-positioned for the playoffs, they are a team that’s never been there before. You lose one game—we’ve all covered these playoffs. It was a long time ago, but we’ve all covered these seven-game series before, and it’s like one game and “Oh my gosh, everything we thought about the series is wrong” because of this one game. Then you have to adjust game to game. We will see how they handle that. But lots of intrigue, lots of potential intrigue in the postseason this year no matter where, no matter who ends up coming to San Antonio. I think the Spurs would win any of those series, but I think they would be tougher than people think.
Jeff McDonald: I think that’s a fair bit of analysis.
Mike Finger: Speaking of analysis, some of the stories you’ve written for the Express-News this past week on this road trip, Jeff—I think you’ve covered Harrison Barnes, covered Julian Champagnie. We’ve had some De’Aaron Fox. What sticks out to you about somebody who’s making a move or is a particular interest perhaps to fans of the local cagers?
Jeff McDonald: I think that Champagnie game in Brooklyn was fun. You know, he’s back in his old stomping grounds. He said he grew up three subway stops away from Barclays. And then to go—I just think that’s a cool story. It’s not the first time he’s played there or played well there, but he was telling me it’s the first time he’s come back just as an NBA player. As you can imagine, back in the day, a couple years ago, when he’s just somehow an undrafted guy, cracked an NBA rotation, a roster, and gets to go back home as an NBA player.
But he said this year, to go back on a team that not only is he an NBA player, he’s on one of the best teams in the league and he’s starting for them, and then he has a 26-point night, hits six threes, kind of spearheads that rout over the team he grew up three subway stops away from. That was a fun night for him and I was happy for him.
Mike Finger: Another fun encounter from this East Coast trip—and we’ll put a bow on this, this might be the last time we’re going to mention a long, long, long-time Spurs Insider podcast subject, but it—we need a sense of finality here. Jeff and I sort of got it in the New York Knicks home locker room around noon on Sunday where we caught up with an old friend, Jeremy Sochan. He seemed to be in good spirits, Jeff, even though he didn’t play much in that game. He was happy to see some folks from San Antonio. You can run through for the listeners about his moving experience, but he seems to be in a good frame of mind and we might never talk about him after this, so put the bow on it.
Jeff McDonald: They seem to like him there, even though he’s not playing—or at least they’re saying all the right things. But if you’re in Jeremy Sochan’s shoes and you’re going to become a free agent this year, and now you’re on your second team and you’re still taking DNPs or near DNPs—like he got in that game against the Spurs for two minutes after it had gotten way out of hand in the fourth quarter—I think you have to be worried a little bit about what’s the next step in your career. What is going to be out there for you? The Spurs tried to trade you twice, basically last summer and at the deadline, and couldn’t really seem to find anybody that wanted to give up much of anything for him.
So it’s got to be a little scary time for that guy. But like you said, he was very happy to see everyone in the Knicks locker room. There was a kind of a welcoming party from San Antonio media that made the trip to the other side of Madison Square Garden, where we hardly ever go, to the Knicks locker room to welcome him.
Mike Finger: We greeted him more warmly than Victor Wembanyama did when he slapped his hand away in the corner there during the game. I think Victor was trying to hit a three-pointer from the corner and Jeremy reached out to keep Victor from coming into the bench, and Victor kind of waved him away and said it didn’t matter if it was Jeremy, “I don’t want anybody touching me.” That was fun.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, he kind of laughed about it later, but yeah, he was good. And Jeremy’s—as you can imagine in the middle of a season when you’re going to have to relocate like that, it’s not like he’s able to fully move to New York. He said he just moved into a place. He’d been in a hotel for a while since coming here. You basically can’t move all your belongings, so he just had a couple suitcases full of stuff he’s been living out of. Said he left his dogs back in San Antonio, so he still has kind of a connection to San Antonio, but he’s moved on. Life moves pretty fast, he said.
Mike Finger: And it makes sense for him to keep that in San Antonio at least through the season because he’s still a restricted free agent this summer. Does that mean he stays in New York? We’ll see, but I think that’s when you make the move.
And he did—Jeremy did send a shout-out to Mike Finger’s mom, which I thought was great. He confirmed my mother’s reporting that he was in the HEB pharmacy two days after he signed with the Knicks and said that she was a lovely woman and said some nice things, so that was very nice. Enjoyed that. He said, “Say hello to your mother for me.” That was great.
Jeff McDonald: Jeremy strikes me as a Hotel Chelsea kind of guy. Very Bohemian.
Mike Finger: He probably is. He’s found nicer digs than that, but who knows? Another highlight of our days in New York is the Spurs had a practice at Nike Headquarters. For any of the people on BlueSky—we’re not endorsing one social network over another—but we posted some photos there of the practice court there, and it’s an illustration of why we call the team the local cagers. Nike has the throwback basketball court behind the chain-link fence, and that is why when Tom was coming up through the newspaper business lo those many decades ago, the headline writers would call basketball teams the cagers because they played in cages. And so that was fun to see Victor Wembanyama and the other local cagers playing inside the cage at the John Thompson court.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, his name’s on it, the Georgetown coach.
Mike Finger: Tom Orsborn’s friend John Thompson. I know Tom interviewed John Thompson back at the Final Four one year, is that right?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, he was quite cranky during that interview session.
Mike Finger: Who was not cranky that day at Nike was Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson, who is in demand. He’s the coach of the hottest team in the league. You’re in the media capital of the world and you’ve got all kinds of national reporters, outlets showing up to talk to you, and he patiently shook the hands and did the interviews and gave people the time they needed.
Something I found interesting was when I asked him about it after, after some of the other guys had left and he was talking—I said, you know, is this something that you’re embracing, about having all this attention on you and having to fulfill all these extra responsibilities when you’re coaching a team like this? And he brought up a dinner, unsolicited he brought this up, a dinner from 2021, he said, right before the All-Star break that year.
He had just been on Pop’s staff for I don’t think more than a year or two. Someone at this dinner had pointed out that the Spurs were maybe the only team in the league, one of the only teams in the league that had zero representation going to All-Star weekend. No All-Stars, no three-point shooters, no slam dunkers, no coaches. And when you think of Pop and you think of the Spurs way, you think that stuff doesn’t matter to them. But Mitch was saying that one thing that stuck out about that is he said that was a really flat moment for me, a low moment for me, because from Pop on down they all kind of thought it was a bummer that this organization that had had Tim Duncan and David Robinson and back to George Gervin and Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker win all these championships, they didn’t have All-Stars anymore. It’s like the NBA wasn’t talking about them.
What Mitch said about that was, “I never ever want to go back to that again.” And so he said now that there’s attention and expectation and extra responsibilities of being a winning team, he’ll take that a hundred times out of a hundred. I thought that was a really cool perspective to have and just a telling sort of anecdote about how far the mood around this franchise has changed in what, five years? Back then you didn’t know if they were ever going to have an All-Star again, and now they have one of the most popular All-Stars in the world and they’re an NBA title contender, and everybody wants to talk to them. So I don’t know, I thought that was interesting.
Tom Orsborn: It was also interesting from a human nature standpoint—maybe, and I think reading your column which you’re referring to, Mike—that he also felt like, “Hey, I’m the new guy, maybe some of this is my fault.” Which is totally ridiculous, but it’s human nature.
Mike Finger: For sure. He felt this responsibility and this obligation to continue—when he got the chance to be on the staff, he wanted to continue what Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford and the whole Spurs organization had established for so many years at a time. And then he gets there and they’re not winning, they’re not going to the playoffs, they’re not sending anybody to the All-Star game.
And Tom, you know the famous line from the beginning of so many mob movies—whether it’s The Godfather or The Sopranos or Goodfellas—the people who feel like they came in at the end of something. Like we feel with sports writing, we came in at the end of something and we missed the good stuff. Mitch sort of felt that way about the Spurs: “Did I miss the good stuff? And is it my fault that the good stuff isn’t here anymore?”
I think that’s a very relatable feeling that I’m sure a lot of our listeners have had about whatever field you’re in or about whatever you’re excited about being part of. You feel like, “Oh, was it better before I got here?” And I don’t know, that was really interesting to hear Mitch put it that way. He didn’t use those words, but that was sort of the gist that I got from it. He was wondering if he missed out on the good stuff. And the good stuff is back.
Tom Orsborn: We all need a Wemby in our lives. [laughter] I like that idea of “We’re not winning anymore, it must be that G League assistant’s fault.” Right, exactly.
Mike Finger: Well, he’s—here’s another thing that I think is worth noting to listeners of a Spurs podcast. In traveling around the league, there’s a lot of respect from people on other teams, covering the league for various outlets, for what Mitch and his staff have done, Shaun Sweeney. There is immense credit being given to those guys. It’s not just that, “Oh, they have Wemby and they’re winning.” Like, this team is pretty well-coached and basketball people are starting to say so. I’ve found that to be a worthwhile observation and picking up.
Speaking of that, we were already—just to go back to how good February was, we’re sitting here just today, Dylan Harper is the Rookie of the Month, Victor Wembanyama is the Defensive Player of the Month, and we don’t know yet, hasn’t been announced, but I’m assuming by the time this… breaking news just in: Mitch Johnson—that’s what I was going to say, what great timing that was! That email just hit, I heard it beep, and yes, Mitch Johnson is the Coach of the Month, which we assume when you go 11-0 you’re pretty much a shoo-in. But the Spurs are sweeping all those awards almost. That’s how good February was for these guys. And that’s the second Coach of the Month honor for Mitch Johnson. So, you know, they must be doing something right. And those are given out by the league, that’s being honored by your peers. That’s not just reporters blowing smoke.
Tom Orsborn: Right.
Mike Finger: Since you brought up Dylan Harper, who we haven’t talked about at all this week and probably not a lot over the course of his Rookie of the Month month, what do people need to know about him and his progress? That was by far his best month as a Spur, I believe.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, it’s got to be. And he’s growing into it. He’s going to have good games and bad games. He wasn’t so great in his Madison Square Garden debut, but not many people on the Spurs were very great in that game. But overall, when you take all of February, he’s growing leaps and bounds and he kind of seems to have—well, we’ll see where it goes from here—but it seems like he’s kind of progressed past that part of the season where we thought he had hit a wall and was maybe having to push through it. It looks like he has pushed through it, and he’s doing a lot of good things for this group. He’s not closing out every game, but they’re entrusting him with a little more crunch-time minutes, which is saying something when you also have De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle on your roster. So, he’s growing into some things and I think he’s going to be a huge part of what they do going down the stretch and into the playoffs. He’s a huge X-factor in all that.
Mike Finger: It’s ancient history when a game happens on a Tuesday night on this podcast, Tom, because that means it’s like seven days since we recorded the last one and we give short shrift to the Tuesday and Wednesday night games sometimes. But a week ago, the game you covered in Toronto was one of Dylan Harper’s finest hours, wasn’t it?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, it was. He was very aggressive in that game. But the thing I liked about it, Mike, was afterward, they were terrible at the free-throw line. Him, Wemby, Fox there at the end just gagged, and Fox was terrible the whole game from the line. But the one guy who took that to heart and it really bothered him was Dylan. He said that’s the worst he’s shot, “It can’t happen again, I’m really torn up about it.” And Wemby and Mitch were like, “Yeah, it happens, ebbs and flows of the league, let’s move on.” But that was kind of a neat moment.
Mike Finger: He went and grabbed his own rebound off one of those when he missed two, didn’t he?
Tom Orsborn: Exactly, yeah. Wemby and Poeltl were fighting for it, he swooped in and grabbed it. It’s one of those Manu plays where you screw something up and then immediately redeem yourself. And then I think that ended up with Fox getting fouled and like, “Okay, that’s how they’re going to seal that game,” and then Fox missed them both, I think, too. He’s got that little Manu-too, where Manu would have the quick self-flagellation, beat himself up for a second and then respond very quickly, and Dylan’s got that too.
Mike Finger: Everything’s coming together. We will see how it goes the week ahead. We’ve got a lot of home games coming up. We’ll know a lot more about them after this home stand, which I think I probably said we’ll know a lot more about them after the rodeo road trip. But after this home stand, like we said, that strength of schedule is pretty tough for the next five or six games.
Tom Orsborn: They’re kind of in the midst of that from beginning with that Detroit game on the 23rd. This is just the midst of that really rough, rough schedule. If they push through that, they’re going to be sitting pretty—pretty, pretty, pretty.
Mike Finger: Let’s take the Sixers out of the equation because some people might not listen to this until after the Sixers game is concluded, and we don’t want to look like idiots by giving you the wrong answer after the game’s already happened. We can look like idiots for other reasons.
Four games ahead before our next, or heading into our next podcast recording: the Pistons, Clippers, Rockets, and Celtics, all playing at the Frost Bank Center over the next week. That is four games against teams that are looking to be in playoff position. What do you guys think?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, and I’m sure Detroit and Boston, they feel they owe the Spurs one each, Detroit having lost and Boston lost a close one. So yeah, I’m looking at two and two. That’s a rough road there, two and two, with the wins coming over the Clippers and I guess Houston. But I’m being very specific, Tom Orsborn.
Mike Finger: I am, I am. I know you don’t like that, Mike.
Tom Orsborn: No, I love it. It makes yourself accountable, transparent. Who could be against transparency in today’s day and age? Yeah, who could be against it?
Mike Finger: Jeff, who do you have in these four games?
Jeff McDonald: I’ll be kind and give them a split as well. But you’re not going to be as transparent as Tom, obviously. No, no, I’m very opaque.
Mike Finger: And there you have it. Yeah, all of us, it’s the end of the trip. There’s no grand finale here, there’s no inspirational speech. You just try to get done with it and get home. That’s enough this week. Take care of each other and keep it real.
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