Spurs Insider Podcast, 2026-03-18 05:25:00
专栏作家迈克·芬格 (Mike Finger) 与随队记者杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald) 和汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn) 讨论了马刺队赢得本赛季第50场比赛的情况，他们如何能赢得60胜，以及为什么一支预测胜场不足45场的球队在本赛季超出了预期。
推荐阅读：
以下是播客的文字记录：
[音乐渐入]
迈克·芬格 (Mike Finger)：这里是来自北美各地高度安全、绝密、可能还有录像监控地点的“马刺内幕 (Spurs Insider)”播客——“突破50胜版”。我是迈克·芬格，和我在一起的照例是《圣安东尼奥快报》的马刺随队记者汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn) 和杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald)。
迈克·芬格：我们不保证，但这期节目可能会也可能不会出现在 YouTube 的视频里。这虽然有点违背我们的品牌形象，但确实可能发布。我想我们的制作人会尝试把我们美丽灿烂的笑脸放到互联网上。汤姆，你准备好迎接“马刺内幕”历史上的这个新时代了吗？
汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn)：我准备好了，开始吧。我已经化好妆了，让人给我补了妆。我准备好了。
迈克·芬格：上周我还在和一位“马刺内幕”的长期听众聊天，他问起我的几位搭档，还准确猜到了汤姆的年龄。他说如果这节目再出视频，他很期待见到汤姆。他低估了汤姆的年纪，然后说：“杰夫和汤姆年纪差不多吧？杰夫也过60了吧？”我说，嗯，听起来差不多。
迈克·芬格：总之，我们本周要揭开“马刺内幕”的神秘面纱，聊聊这支为听众而赢的球队。让我们抛开视频这些胡言乱语。汤姆正在洛杉矶，他昨晚报道了圣安东尼奥马刺队赢得赛季第50场比赛的消息。汤姆，他们似乎并不满足于此。
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，我的意思是，如果这可能是季后赛首轮的预演，即使快船没有科怀·莱昂纳德 (Kawhi Leonard)，我们也有一场好戏看了。文班在赛后说：“我们有所成长，但这还不够。”他想冲击60胜，以此来扭转他新秀赛季22胜60负的战绩。他的队友们也很支持。凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 说：“是啊，为什么要止步于此？如果那个男人说我们要冲60胜，那我们就冲60胜。”所以这就是他们最后阶段的目标。谁会赌他们赢不了呢？
迈克·芬格：杰夫，这时候我要把杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald) 拉进对话了。如果我在2026年圣帕特里克节告诉你，圣安东尼奥马刺队可能会以60胜结束赛季，五个月前的你会怎么说，杰夫？
杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald)：我会觉得整组嘉宾都疯了。没错，圣帕特里克节再来一杯绿啤酒吧。是的，表现已经大大超出了预期。赛季开始前拉斯维加斯的预测胜场是多少？43还是44场？大概就那样吧？
迈克·芬格：就在那个区间。我们在这个播客里不谈博彩，但那个数字差不多。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：既然现在有视频了，我觉得我们可以随心所欲了。
迈克·芬格：我明白了。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我们还在——顺便说一下，你开头用了“录像 (videotaped)”这个词。现在还在用磁带录像吗？
迈克·芬格：我说的是“可能”有录像。人们可能在家里用 VHS 录像机录制。我们有老派的听众/观众。我觉得这可能有兼容性，也许还有 Betamax 录像机。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是啊，也许我父母可以用他们的 Beta 录像机看。
迈克·芬格：没错。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：超出预期。作为播客，我们的表现低于预期，但马刺队本身，本赛季表现超出了预期。瞄准60胜，那——我不认为他们能达到，你觉得呢？但这是一个很好的目标，而且肯定比一个月前看起来更可行。
迈克·芬格：我觉得他们正处于这个节奏上，如果我们想讨论这个的话。我想还剩14场比赛，马刺队上一次在14场比赛中胜场少于10胜4负是什么时候？
汤姆·奥斯本：那是很久以前的事了。
迈克·芬格：所以我猜我们正在讨论一支60胜的球队。回顾过去的一周，未来还有客场比赛，我们稍后会详细讨论。在赛季最后两周，有些比赛马刺可能不会那么拼命去赢，所以我不确定60胜是否可行。但上周也是一个不错的阶段，我想是从上周二录音后对阵波士顿凯尔特人队开始的。杰伦·布朗 (Jaylen Brown) 提前被驱逐出场。
迈克·芬格：几天后在没有维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 的情况下对阵丹佛掘金队，马刺曾领先但最后遗憾失利，但总的来说，这又是他们处理好分内事的一周。汤姆，过去这一周让你印象最深的是什么？
汤姆·奥斯本：嗯，我的意思是，米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 正在尝试小球阵容。卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 昨晚我和他聊过。他非常喜欢这个阵容。他正在适应这个角色，在这种打法下获得了更多上场时间。不过伤病方面，哈珀缺阵，科内特也是。他们想在最后阶段微调一些东西，我们看到了一些尝试。但是，无论发生什么，他们都在赢球。
汤姆·奥斯本：他们也得到了一些运气。布朗被争议性地驱逐，莱昂纳德前晚没打，但就像米奇说的，在这个联盟里赢50场比赛很难，而他们做到了。他们正稳步前进。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：在这段时期表现非常稳健的球员中，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 算一个。现在他几乎每晚都能拿到准三双，而且大部分时间都能控制失误，掌控局面，在得分和助攻的同时还能冲抢篮板。文班就是文班，但如果你谈论其他球员，我认为卡斯尔是这段时间的明星。
迈克·芬格：还记得在文班亚马时代的早期，我们大肆渲染——球队周围的很多人都在大肆渲染——空接传球，为什么他们不更多地给那个大个子传空接？那看起来很简单，后来我们慢慢意识到这比看起来要困难和复杂。你不能每次进攻都只管把球往大个子头上扔。
迈克·芬格：但我最近注意到斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的一点是，只要有一丁点机会，他就变得非常擅长给那个大个子传空接。昨晚在英图伊特穹顶球馆 (Intuit Dome) 有一个球，汤姆，我知道你很享受那个球，文班当时只有一线空档，斯蒂芬——我想那是比赛最后几分钟——斯蒂芬直接把球抛给了他，看起来就像自动得分一样。
迈克·芬格：过去一周已经有好几个这样的球了。我觉得现在队里的所有人都开始理解他什么时候有优势，以及什么时候可以利用这种优势。这不是每次进攻都能做的，也不是随时都能做的，但斯蒂芬正在学习如何越来越多地与文班配合，这确实收到了回报。
汤姆·奥斯本：文班自己也在传空接。在对阵黄蜂的比赛中，他给科内特传了几个，给斯蒂芬传了一个。是的。
迈克·芬格：关于快船队比赛结束时的另一个观察，因为那是最近的一场。马刺队开局落后很多，后来领先很多，最后差点崩盘。米奇·约翰逊不得不在最后几分钟叫个暂停，把全队重新组织起来。我想当时文班在板凳上。
迈克·芬格：关键暂停后的第一个战术——快船队已经把分差缩小到五六分——是德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 的跳投。他们在为德文·瓦塞尔跑战术，他也加入了这场派对。我想说“加入派对”可能不太公平，他一整年都在派对里。但他们有多种方式来获得关键得分。
迈克·芬格：不只是“第四节先生”达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)，不只是 MVP 候选人文班亚马，也不只是超级新秀斯蒂芬·卡斯尔。看起来他们在比赛最后阶段开发出了很多不同的得分方式，如果我们在这里表现得过于乐观和赞不绝口，那就继续吧，因为德文·瓦塞尔也是其中的一部分。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：你提到瓦塞尔很有趣，因为本赛季他有时就像是他们的“得分荒终结者”。就像你提到的情况，米奇会叫个暂停，画一个暂停后战术，就是为了让瓦塞尔投一个底线跳投或中距离跳投，他投这种球几乎是自动得分。这已经成了他们的工具之一，当他们陷入得分荒、领先优势缩小时，他们会叫个暂停让瓦塞尔投一个。在进攻端，这是他在队中最大的价值之一，就是那些暂停后的止血球。
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，他找位置很快、很高效、很有力。除了那个暂停后的15英尺跳投，米奇还注意到他昨晚在场上很敢说话。他在告诉队友们：“我们的肢体语言需要改进，让我们完成任务。”
汤姆·奥斯本：然后在还剩30秒时他走上罚球线——马刺在那种情况下表现一直不稳定——他稳稳命中两记罚球，在还剩约30秒时将领先优势扩大到6分。所以，是的，我的意思是，他有时会被忽视，但他非常受器重，不仅是因为我们讨论的进攻端，在防守端他偶尔也能做出一些关键贡献。
迈克·芬格：汤姆，既然我们在谈论那些被低估的球员，他现在几乎不再被低估了。正如现在的年轻人所说，他今年得到了很多“鲜花”。但你在 ExpressNews.com 上写了一篇关于凯尔登·约翰逊的故事，他在马刺效力时间最长，本赛季表现依然非常稳健。
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，他排名上升了，他现在在马刺队史替补得分榜上排名第四。他还在采访中抢镜，到处干扰采访，甚至是全国直播的采访。昨晚他表现一般，可以这么说，但他一直很稳定。我们上周讨论过奖项，他肯定是约翰·哈夫利切克奖（年度最佳第六人奖）的有力竞争者。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我们谈论过他很多次，但他是另一个角色发生巨大变化的球员，自从他来到这里，他必须真正适应替补身份。当他们第一次让他全职打替补时，这并不容易，正如米奇·约翰逊多次提到的那样。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：凯尔登·约翰逊曾是一个在 NBA 场均能拿22分的球员，他已经向自己证明了作为首发他能在 NBA 得分。现在你要求他为了球队利益从替补席出发，他接受这个角色的方式是这支球队能达到现在高度的一个重要原因，他带来了只有凯尔登和他那些“咖啡因炸弹”才能带来的替补能量。
迈克·芬格：凯尔登有“替补能量 (Bench Juice)”的代言合同吗？我觉得那对他来说会是个好产品。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：他们应该找他。他们可以找来马努·吉诺比利 (Manu Ginobili)，做一个“替补能量”和“爷爷能量 (Grandpa Juice)”的联动。那会很棒。
迈克·芬格：现在既然我们要保持目光炯炯、神采奕奕，而且我们通常在周三早上录音，我们可以在播客开始前喝点“替补能量”。我觉得这个播客需要点“替补能量”。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我得告诉你，自1998年以来我就没神采奕奕过了。
迈克·芬格：那目光炯炯呢？也是同一年？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：同一年。我眼里的光是什么时候熄灭的？你认识我很久了。我什么时候变得内心枯槁的？
迈克·芬格：我从来没见过你眼里有光，这就是为什么我们一直没做视频播客。顺便说一下，向播客制作人蒙蒂·巴赫 (Monty Bach) 致敬，那些出于某种原因——我不知道为什么——一直推动我们出镜的人，他就是你们的代言人。他一直在推动我们。没有蒙蒂，这事儿成不了。我们看看今天的效果如何，是否能上 YouTube，上家里的 VHS 录像机，上 Betamax。
迈克·芬格：你们觉得这个新时代怎么样？还习惯吗？汤姆，你是在拥抱变化、拥抱未来吗，就像当地的球员们在拥抱他们的新时代一样？
汤姆·奥斯本：我就像凯尔登，也许一开始有点不情愿，但我已经看到了其中的智慧，这对球队有好处，对管理层、对我们的办公室、对赫斯特集团等等都有好处。所以我现在完全支持，是的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我告诉你，八年来我一直是光着膀子做节目的。现在我不得不穿上衬衫了。
迈克·芬格：汤姆这周所在的地点最有趣，也最安全。这就是犹豫和不情愿的原因之一，因为很多很多年来——这个开场白有个背景故事，人们问过，我想我们以前也重申过——但这个“马刺内幕”播客是以“安全地点”为主题开始的，因为人们不被允许知道我们在哪里录音。
迈克·芬格：现在又揭开了一层。有视频证据显示我们在哪里，人们可以在网上通过线索找出安全地点在哪里。汤姆这周在一个有趣的地方。这是随队记者出差生活的一个缩影。这是一场背靠背。就在几个小时前，汤姆还在英图伊特穹顶球馆报道马刺击败快船，而今天晚上，他必须赶到萨克拉门托，在此期间，他得录制这个播客，让我们成千上万——不，是几十万观众看到他目光炯炯、神采奕奕的神态。汤姆，你能透露一下你今天的所在地吗？
汤姆·奥斯本：嗯，我的意思是，允许直接泄露安全地点吗？
迈克·芬格：嗯，这是一个临时安全地点。蒙蒂·巴赫说他会在圣帕特里克节下午发布，到时候你就已经离开了，所以我猜你可以透露。
汤姆·奥斯本：我在洛杉矶的威斯特彻斯特区，具体来说是洛杉矶国际机场 (LAX) 区域，住在一个大酒店里。
迈克·芬格：这就是生活——人们对此很着迷。这就是随队记者的生活。你正在经历某种“文艺复兴 (Renaissance)”吗？
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，是的，如你们所知，我是一个文艺复兴人。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：有什么新萌生的兴趣吗？
汤姆·奥斯本：LAX 文艺复兴酒店 (LAX Renaissance)。通常我住在玛丽安德尔湾。
迈克·芬格：你不需要说那么多，不需要那么详细。好吧。
汤姆·奥斯本：但不，是的，这里距离英图伊特穹顶球馆只有10分钟左右的车程，所以对这次行程来说是个好地方。播客结束后我得赶紧出发，赶往 LAX，11点登机，然后去萨克拉门托。与此同时，我正努力看——我觉得我像是在看《MS Now》，正努力看迈克·芬格书架上有什么。
迈克·芬格：那只是背景。杰夫·麦克唐纳书架上的照片呢？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：他已经把那些书都涂完色了。
迈克·芬格：不，但我认为这给播客增色不少，我觉得人们很想知道随队记者如何处理背靠背，因为球队是坐专机的，球队——
杰夫·麦克唐纳：没人对那个感兴趣。
迈克·芬格：当然有，汤姆昨晚刚看完比赛，今天早上录播客，今晚又要去萨克拉门托。汤姆是个硬汉。也许他们对那个不感兴趣。杰夫·麦克唐纳，你对篮球相关的其他什么感兴趣？人们收听节目就是为了听杰夫·麦克唐纳提供的战术分析。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：本周发生的另一件有趣的事，给关注这件事的人提个醒：维克托·文班亚马缺席了一场比赛。
迈克·芬格：那是真的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：所以他现在还剩什么，还能缺席三场？
迈克·芬格：我觉得是四场。嗯，他缺席了一场。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：好吧。总之，他已经缺席了15场。他还能缺席三场。汤姆，你昨晚赛后见到他了。他怎么样？因为他扭到了那个他说过有点酸痛的右脚踝。他扭得挺厉害，但还是坚持打完了比赛，但是——
汤姆·奥斯本：我在社交媒体上看到了那张照片。很惨烈。我是说，真的很惨烈。不出所料，他在更衣室里坐了很久，两只大脚泡在一个巨大的冰桶里。所以谁知道呢？他可能会出现在伤病名单上，但他看起来还好。我的意思是，这家伙不可思议。而且在那场比赛最后的最后几秒，他还在飞身扑救一个地板球。
迈克·芬格：最后扑到了康蒙 (Common) 的脚下，汤姆，我确信你注意到了。我确信你全程关注。我不知道你赛后有没有采访到康蒙。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我以为你在叫汤姆“康蒙”。就像他是“普通的汤姆 (Common Tom)”。你说康蒙汤姆，我听糊涂了。
汤姆·奥斯本：我的意思是这家伙——我们以前讨论过——但他到处倒地救球。他已经这样做了三年了。我们谈论他缺阵，有些人会抓狂，但他非常耐操。这简直不可思议。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：他确实是。对于那些不太关注的人，比如全美范围内的马刺路人球迷，有一种观点认为维克托·文班亚马容易受伤，但他不是。他恰恰相反。他上赛季缺席了很多比赛是因为血栓问题，在我看来，这和容易受伤是两码事。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：他职业生涯中其实只有过一次重大的软组织损伤，就是本赛季开始时的那次小腿拉伤，即便如此，那也是马刺队在极其谨慎地对待他。他有过很多次那种脚踝扭伤，你看了会觉得，“好吧，他得歇一个半星期了”，结果两分钟后他就回到了场上。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：这就是他做的那些灵活性训练，那些拉伸训练，他从出生起就在做。我认为所有这些努力都收到了回报，他是一个非常耐操的球员。你总能听到 NBA 的大个子如何无法留在场上。文班可以。他只是在那一年因为血栓停赛了。
迈克·芬格：比尔·沃尔顿 (Bill Walton)、姚明那种原型。我觉得人们想到断裂的足部，想到那些无法移动、容易受伤、在内线很脆弱的笨重大中锋时，就会想到他们，因为他们承受着巨大的负荷。我认为部分原因在于维克托没有那两位那么大，我是说宽度和重量，没有他们那么重。
迈克·芬格：还有杰夫说的——从他的新秀年起，你就一次又一次看到维克托脚踝扭伤，脚底和腓骨都成90度角了，他抖一抖就没事了。很大程度上是因为拉伸和灵活性，也许年轻也是一部分原因，但他一次又一次地挺过来了。我知道他上周因为脚踝扭伤缺席了一场比赛，对吧？然后他又扭了一次，但他通常不会因为这些伤病一次缺席多场比赛。
迈克·芬格：我们意识到我们现在都在败人品，他接下来的四场可能都要缺席了。但马刺还剩14场比赛，他可以缺席三场，或者在一场比赛里打15分钟，我想，我们是在讨论达到季后赛奖项评选最低要求的65场比赛。我不认为这在最后阶段会是一个大问题。
迈克·芬格：即使出于某种原因他今晚对阵萨克拉门托轮休（我觉得不会发生），这也不会让你处于失去评奖资格的边缘。我认为在最后的14场比赛中仍有一些轮休的机会，因为我们可以谈谈季后赛排名。马刺队在第二名的位置上坐得很稳。我不认为他们会上升，也不认为他们会下降，我确实认为在赛季接下来的三周里，有机会让每个人轮休一两场比赛，为季后赛做准备。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：这周有人提醒了我。我们已经很久没有报道季后赛了，现在的规则有点不同。过去，你肯定会尝试安排最后的冲刺。格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 会尝试安排最后的冲刺，这样你就可以在最后阶段让你的蒂米（邓肯）和马努休息，让他们得到休息，这样你就不会在常规赛结束后直接冲进季后赛系列赛的第一场。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：但自从有了附加赛，如果你是二号种子，你无论如何都有五天的休息时间。你在等待附加赛结束。休息时间是自带的。我不认为在最后阶段让球员休息是那么迫切的事情。当然，如果他们撞伤了，如果他们脚踝或哪里酸痛，那是肯定的，但为了休息而休息，我不确定是否会这样做。我认为，如果你在赛季最后几场比赛轮休，然后进入季后赛开始前的五天间歇期，那休息时间就太长了。所以对维克托来说，为他节省这些天数并不是那么迫切。如果他现在脚踝疼，那就现在歇。
迈克·芬格：嗯，这个观点很有道理。我指的并不一定是赛季最后一场比赛轮休，我说的是最后阶段那些随机的背靠背，你不想在最后两周过度消耗某人。他们还剩一个背靠背，对吧？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，4月1日和2日对阵金州勇士和萨克拉门托。也许你不会两场都打。
迈克·芬格：常规赛结束前还有四个主场，也许你会错过其中一个。我不仅仅是指维克托，我指的是所有那些有小伤小病的球员。这不仅仅是为了休息，也是为了预防，不打每一场比赛以防万一。担心受伤可能不是最好的方法，但我可以看到核心球员偶尔轮休一场。
汤姆·奥斯本：不，你是对的。他们还有一个背靠背：金州勇士，然后又是英图伊特穹顶球馆的快船。杰夫会去那次客场，在附近的某个安全地点。但有些球员，比如凯尔登，他的肩膀还有伤，他是带伤作战。大家都在带伤坚持。卡斯尔的大拇指，他也是带伤作战。这就是 NBA，这就是苦差事。是的。
迈克·芬格：我们离季后赛越来越近了，我相信在未来的播客中我们会有很多时间讨论这个，但因为马刺已经基本锁定了二号种子，剩下的悬念就是马刺将对阵谁，以及你在哪个半区。三到六名的混战非常精彩。
迈克·芬格：一支令人惊讶的球队似乎正在马刺所在的半区脱颖而出。你们是否也像我一样，对洛杉矶湖人队现在领先第三名一个半胜场感到着迷？你们是否同意我的观点，即这对圣安东尼奥马刺队来说可能是一件好事，我觉得马刺对阵那支球队时对位挺有优势？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，我同意。我认为这对马刺来说是一个很好的对阵，因为这有点像以前情况的反转，以前马刺在季后赛老得掉渣，而有些球队在运动能力上能碾压他们。我认为在面对这支湖人队时，马刺是硬币的另一面。湖人队老得掉渣，而这支马刺队在运动能力上对那些老家伙来说是一个非常艰难的对位。所以我认为如果他们最终排在第三，而你进入第二轮，如果你是马刺，我认为那是你能得到的通往分区决赛最好的路径。
迈克·芬格：我同意，虽然渴望对阵勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James)、卢卡·东契奇 (Luka Dončić) 和奥斯汀·里夫斯听起来很疯狂——看看他们，他们有很多好球员。但汤姆，回到季中赛之前的那场比赛。那是在斯台普斯，在 Crypto.com 球馆举行的季中赛四分之一决赛，马刺年轻的高大后卫让湖人那些老家伙看起来又老又慢。
迈克·芬格：我认为打七场、六场或五场那样的比赛对马刺来说会非常有利。在季后赛经验方面，马刺面对湖人将处于巨大的劣势，没人能在那个领域和勒布朗相提并论。但如果你看看第二轮可能面对的球队——当然，他们还没过第一轮——但我认为你会更愿意面对湖人，而不是明尼苏达森林狼或丹佛掘金。
汤姆·奥斯本：而且东契奇虽然能拿分，但卡斯尔对他缠绕得很好。这也会让卢卡心态失衡，而且——
迈克·芬格：他们会反击他。他们让卢卡必须去防守，如果他不防，他们就会打爆他。所以我们现在说得太超前了，但我认为湖人前几天击败火箭是一个值得注意的进展。火箭队起伏不定，就像很多那样的球队一样，但如果你是一个在三到六名的混乱中寻找支持目标的马刺球迷，我认为让湖人拿到第三名可能是一件好事。
迈克·芬格：然后我想我会支持快船队以某种方式摆脱七号种子的泥潭。如果我是马刺，我不想在第一轮打他们。在所有可能遇到的球队中，我最不想打他们。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我同意。看起来七号种子不是快船就是太阳，因为那将是七八名附加赛的胜者。如果你看排名说，“太阳现在领先快船多少场”，那其实并不重要，因为这取决于那场七对八的比赛。谁赢了谁就能打马刺。我认为杰夫是对的，我认为你宁愿打太阳也不愿打快船。
迈克·芬格：但所有这些都将在接下来的几周内揭晓。我们要看看未来一周的情况。汤姆，正如我们之前提到的，正前往萨克拉门托。周四主场对阵刚才提到的菲尼克斯太阳，周六主场对阵印第安纳步行者，然后又是客场之旅。谁去迈阿密？
汤姆·奥斯本：我去。3M 之旅：迈阿密 (Miami)、孟菲斯 (Memphis)、密尔沃基 (Milwaukee)。
迈克·芬格：他们没把明尼苏达 (Minnesota) 也给你塞进去？
汤姆·奥斯本：我知道。
迈克·芬格：那可是一次长途旅行，汤姆。迈阿密、孟菲斯、密尔沃基。你得带应对各种气候的衣服。
汤姆·奥斯本：感觉就像很久以前我在迈阿密看季前赛一样。
迈克·芬格：那时候你绝不会想到在圣帕特里克节，你会谈论一支正冲向60胜的50胜球队。
汤姆·奥斯本：绝不会。
迈克·芬格：但你现在可以做一个更好的预测了，汤姆。在我们下次视频播客见面之前，还有四场比赛。萨克拉门托、菲尼克斯、印第安纳、迈阿密。你觉得呢？
汤姆·奥斯本：冲击60胜的号角已经吹响。三胜一负，输的那场在迈阿密。
迈克·芬格：我总是喜欢汤姆·奥斯本的细节和透明度。杰夫·麦克唐纳，你觉得呢？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我也认为是三胜一负。如果他们能把阿德巴约限制在80分以下，可能是四胜零负。
迈克·芬格：那是个不错的挑战。下周的预测呢？我们还会出视频吗？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我觉得所有那些写信要求我们出视频的人，现在可能会有另一群人强烈要求关掉视频。
迈克·芬格：我觉得可能会是这样。“我们看够这几个白痴了。关掉它。”好吧，我们尝试过了。我们正努力拥抱21世纪，尽管已经过去26年了。我们下周看看效果如何。在那之前，保重，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：The big 5-0 for San Antonio
The big 5-0 for San Antonio
Columnist Mike Finger and beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss the Spurs winning their 50th game of the season, how they could win 60 and why a team projected to win less than 45 games has exceeded expectations this season.
Suggested reading:
Victor Wembanyama wants Spurs to finish season with 60 wins
Spurs will be down a starter when they play at Sacramento on Tuesday night
What the Spurs had to say about the Clippers after beating them Monday night
How the Spurs’ Carter Bryant is embracing his small-ball role
Three takeaways as Spurs claim their 50th win of the season
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
[music fades in]
Mike Finger: From a highly secure network of top secret, possibly videotaped locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider, Cruising Past 50 Edition. I am Mike Finger, joined as always by San Antonio Express-News Spurs beat writers Tom Orsborn and Jeff McDonald.
Mike Finger: We’re not guaranteeing it, this may or may not be on the YouTube, on video. It’s something that goes against the brand, but it could be out there. I think our producer’s going to try to get our beautiful, smiling faces up on the worldwide web. Tom, are you ready for this new era in Spurs Insider history?
Tom Orsborn: I’m ready, let’s go. I’ve got my makeup on, I’ve had my makeup put on. I’m ready to go.
Mike Finger: I was talking to a Spurs Insider longtime listener last week who was asking me about my fellow panelists, and they accurately guessed Tom Orsborn’s age. He said he was looking forward to seeing Tom Orsborn if this ever was on video again. He undershot Tom’s age and he said, “And Jeff’s about the same age as Tom, right? Jeff’s post-60?” I said yeah, that sounds about right.
Mike Finger: Anyway, we’re peeling away the layers of mystery about the Spurs Insider this week and we’re talking about a team that won for the listeners. Let’s get rid of this video nonsense. Tom Orsborn’s in Los Angeles having covered the San Antonio Spurs winning their 50th game of the season last night and Tom, they’re not content to stop there.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, I mean, if this was a possible first-round playoff preview, even without Kawhi, we’re in for a fun ride. Wemby said after the game, “We’ve had growth, but it’s not enough.” He wants to go for 60 and reverse that 22 and 60 record he had in his rookie season. And his teammates are on board. Keldon said, “Yeah, why settle? If the man said we’re going for 60, we’re going for 60.” So that’s their goal down the stretch. Who’s going to bet against them?
Mike Finger: Well Jeff, that’s when I bring Jeff McDonald into the chat, who if I would have mentioned to Jeff McDonald that on St. Patrick’s Day 2026, we’d be talking about the San Antonio Spurs possibly finishing with 60 victories in a season, what would you have said, Jeff, five months ago?
Jeff McDonald: I would have thought the entire panel was on crack. Exactly. Have another green beer on St. Patrick’s Day. Yeah, exceeded expectations by a long shot already. What was the Vegas over-under to start the season? Was it 43, 44 wins? Something like that?
Mike Finger: Somewhere in that range. We don’t talk about gambling on this podcast, but that’s about right.
Jeff McDonald: Well, now that we’re on video, I think we can do whatever we want.
Mike Finger: I see.
Jeff McDonald: Do we still—you called it “videotaped” to start, by the way. Is it still on tape?
Mike Finger: I said possibly videotaped. People might be at home recording this on their VHS. We have old-school listeners/viewers. I think there’s probably a compatibility there, maybe Betamax as well.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, maybe my parents can watch it on their Beta.
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Jeff McDonald: Exceeding expectations. We’re not, as a podcast, we are under expectations, but the Spurs themselves, exceeding expectations this season. Taking aim at 60 wins, that’s—I don’t think they’re going to get there, do you? But it’s a good goal and it’s certainly more doable than it seemed even a month ago.
Mike Finger: I think they’re on pace, if we want to talk about this. I think there are 14 games left, and when’s the last 14-game stretch where the Spurs have gone less than 10 and 4?
Tom Orsborn: It’s been a while.
Mike Finger: So I guess we’re talking about a 60-win team then. To talk about the week that was and there’s road games in the future, which we’ll get into. There’s some games that maybe the Spurs are not going to be trying as hard to win down the last couple of weeks of the season, so I’m not sure if 60 is doable, but this was another week where I think it started with the Boston Celtics last Tuesday night after we recorded. Jaylen Brown had an early exit.
Mike Finger: There was a game without Victor Wembanyama against the Denver Nuggets a couple nights later that the Spurs led and let get away from them, but another week where they took care of business for the most part. What sticks out to you, Tom, about the week that was?
Tom Orsborn: Well, I mean, Mitch is experimenting a little bit with the small-ball lineup. Carter Bryant, I talked to him last night about it. He likes it a lot. He’s embracing it, getting more minutes in that look. The injuries though, you’ve got Harper out, Kornet. They want to fine-tune things in this final stretch and we’re seeing a little bit of an attempt to do that. But yeah, they just keep—whatever happens, they win.
Tom Orsborn: They’re getting some breaks here and there. Brown getting ejected in a controversial manner, Kawhi not playing the other night, but like Mitch said, it’s tough to win 50 games in this league and they’re doing it. They’re just chugging along.
Jeff McDonald: Among the guys who’ve been kind of the steady Eddies of this stretch is Stephon Castle. Every night he’s a near triple-double now, and for the most part keeping the turnovers down, running the show, hitting the boards while also putting up scoring and assist numbers. Wemby’s Wemby, but if you talk about the rest of them, I think Castle’s been the guy that has been the star of this stretch.
Mike Finger: Remember in the early days of the Victor Wembanyama era in San Antonio, we made a big deal—a lot of people around the team made a big deal—of the lob pass and why aren’t they just lobbing it to the big fellow more? And that seemed so easy, and we’ve slowly realized that that’s more difficult, it’s more complicated than it seems at first. You can’t just lob it to the big fellow every trip up the floor.
Mike Finger: But one thing I’ve been noticing about Stephon Castle lately is he’s getting really good at just lobbing it up to the big fellow anytime that’s remotely an option. There was a play last night, Tom, at the Intuit Dome, which I know you enjoyed, where Victor just had a sliver of daylight and Stephon had—I think it was in the last few minutes of the game—and Stephon just threw it up there to him and it just looked automatic.
Mike Finger: And there’s been a few of those over the past week. It’s getting to the point where I think all the guys on the team are understanding when he has that advantage and when they can take advantage of it. It’s not every trip, it’s not something you can do all the time, but Stephon is learning how to play more and more with Victor, and it’s really paying off.
Tom Orsborn: And Victor’s dishing some lobs himself. The Charlotte game, he set up Kornet for a couple, Steph for one. Yeah.
Mike Finger: Another observation from the end of the Clippers game since it’s the most recent. The Spurs got down huge early, got up huge, were letting it slip away at the end. Mitch Johnson had to call a timeout in the final couple of minutes to kind of get the whole squad back out there. I think Victor was on the bench.
Mike Finger: And one of the first plays after a key timeout—the Clippers had cut it to five or six—was a Devin Vassell jumper. They’re running stuff for Devin Vassell, he’s joining the party. And I guess that’s probably unfair to say “joining the party,” he’s been at the party all year. But they have a variety of ways to get big buckets.
Mike Finger: It’s not just Mr. Fourth Quarter De’Aaron Fox, it’s not just MVP candidate Victor Wembanyama, it’s not just super sophomore Stephon Castle. It seems like they’re developing a lot of different ways to get what they want down the stretch of games, and if we’re just being overly optimistic here and effusive about how good they look, I think let’s just keep at it because Devin Vassell’s part of this.
Jeff McDonald: It’s interesting you bring up Vassell because he has kind of been their drought stopper at times this season. It’s a situation like you mentioned, Mitch will call a timeout, draw up an out-of-timeout play, and it’s drawn up for Vassell to get a little baseline jumper, a little mid-range jumper, and he’s pretty automatic at it. And that’s become one of their tools where they’ve been a little dry for a while, haven’t scored in a while, losing a lead, and to stop that they will call a timeout to get Devin Vassell a shot. Offensively, that’s one of his greatest values on this team is just those drought-stopping ATO plays.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, he finds his spots quickly, efficiently, forcefully. In addition to that 15-foot jumper he hit coming out of the timeout, Mitch noted that he was pretty vocal last night. He was telling the guys, “Our body language needs to get better, let’s finish the job.”
Tom Orsborn: And then he goes to the line with 30 seconds left—and the Spurs have been shaky in those situations—knocks down two free throws to put them back up by six points with about 30 seconds left. So yeah, I mean, he gets overlooked at times, but he’s very much appreciated not only for those things we’re talking about offensively, but defensively he makes some big plays too, here and there.
Mike Finger: Tom, while we’re talking about the underappreciated players, he’s almost not underappreciated anymore. He’s getting plenty of flowers, as the kids say, this year. But you had a Keldon Johnson story on ExpressNews.com continuing a really solid season for the longest-tenured Spur.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, he moved up, he’s in fourth place now all-time franchise bench scoring points. He’s photobombing interviews, disrupting interviews left and right, national interviews. He had an off night last night, so to speak, but he’s been so consistent. We kind of covered it last week about the awards, but he’s certainly a strong candidate for the John Havlicek Award as the Sixth Man of the Year.
Jeff McDonald: We’ve talked about him a lot over time, but he’s another guy that his role has changed so much since he’s been here and he’s had to really adapt to being this bench guy. It wasn’t always easy when they first moved him there full-time, as has been mentioned a lot of times, even by Mitch Johnson.
Jeff McDonald: Keldon Johnson was a guy who had averaged 22 points a game in the NBA and had proven to himself that he could score in the NBA as a starter. Now you’re asking him to come off the bench for the good of the team, and the way he’s embraced that role has been a big storyline of why this team is where it is, is having that kind of bench juice that only Keldon and his caffeine bombs can bring.
Mike Finger: Does Keldon have an endorsement deal with Bench Juice? I think that would be a good product for him.
Jeff McDonald: They should. They could do like, bring in Manu and do like a Bench Juice and Grandpa Juice crossover. It’d be great.
Mike Finger: We could load up on Bench Juice before the podcast now that we have to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and we usually record in the mornings of the week. I think we could use some Bench Juice on this podcast.
Jeff McDonald: I got to tell you, my tail hasn’t been bushy since 1998.
Mike Finger: How about the bright eyes part of it? Same year?
Jeff McDonald: Same year. When did the light go out in my eyes? You’ve known me a long time. When did I become dead inside?
Mike Finger: I’ve never known light to be in your eyes, which is why we haven’t been a video podcast. By the way, hat tip to podcast producer Monty Bach, who those of you who have been pushing for us to be on camera for some reason—I don’t know why—he’s been your advocate. He’s been pushing us. This would not happen without Monty. We’ll see how this goes today, if this gets on the YouTube, on the VHS recorders at home, on the Betamaxes.
Mike Finger: How do you guys feel about this new era? Are you okay with it? Tom, are you embracing change, embracing the future much the way the local cagers are embracing their new era?
Tom Orsborn: I’m like Keldon, maybe a little reluctance at the start, but I’ve come to see the wisdom of it, the good for the team, the good for the front office, for our office, for the Hearst Corporation and so forth. So I’m all for it now, yeah.
Jeff McDonald: I’ll tell you, for eight years I’ve been doing these shirtless. So now I’ve had to put a shirt on.
Mike Finger: Tom has the most interesting location this week, the most secure location. And this is part of the hesitance, the reluctance, is for many, many years—and there’s a backstory to the intro which people have asked about and I think we’ve rehashed it before—but this Spurs Insider podcast started with a theme of a secure location, because people are not allowed to know where we’re recording from.
Mike Finger: And now this is another layer peeled away. There’s video evidence of where we are, people can put clues together online to figure out where the secure locations are. Tom is in an interesting place this week. This is a view into the life of a traveling beat writer. It’s a back-to-back. Tom only a mere few hours ago was at the Intuit Dome covering the Spurs beating the Clippers and now tonight, he’s got to be in Sacramento, and in between he’s got to record this podcast to let our millions, nay, hundreds of thousands of viewers see his bright-eyed and bushy-tailed demeanor. Tom, can you shed any light on your location today?
Tom Orsborn: Well, I mean, is that allowed to just give away the secure location?
Mike Finger: Well, this is a one-time secure location. Monty Bach says he’ll have this up on the afternoon of St. Patrick’s Day and you will be gone by then, so I guess you can divulge it.
Tom Orsborn: I’m in the Westchester area of Los Angeles, specifically the LAX area, staying at a major hotel.
Mike Finger: And this is the life—people are fascinated about this. This is the life that a beat writer leads. Are you experiencing any kind of Renaissance?
Tom Orsborn: Yes, yes, I’m a Renaissance man, as you guys know.
Jeff McDonald: Any budding interests?
Tom Orsborn: LAX Renaissance. Usually I stay at Marina del Rey.
Mike Finger: You didn’t need to give that much, be that explicit. All right.
Tom Orsborn: But no, yeah, it’s a mere 10 minutes or so from Intuit Dome, so it was a good location for this trip. I’ve got to be out quickly after this podcast, make my way to LAX, board at 11, and then on to Sacramento. In the meantime, I’m straining—I feel like I’m watching MS Now and I’m straining to see what’s on Mike Finger’s bookshelf.
Mike Finger: That’s just for background. How about the photos in Jeff McDonald’s?
Jeff McDonald: He’s colored in all those books already.
Mike Finger: No, but I think what this adds to the podcast, I think people are fascinated to know how a beat guy handles the back-to-back, because the team flies private, the team—
Jeff McDonald: Nobody’s fascinated by that.
Mike Finger: Sure, Tom had to get from the game last night to the podcast this morning to Sacramento tonight. Tom is a trooper. Maybe they’re not fascinated by that. What else are you fascinated by, Jeff McDonald, basketball-related? That’s what people tune in for, is the X’s and O’s breakdowns that Jeff McDonald provides.
Jeff McDonald: Another interesting thing that happened this week, for people that are following this: Victor Wembanyama missed one game.
Mike Finger: That’s true.
Jeff McDonald: So he’s down to what, three left that he can miss?
Mike Finger: I think it’s four. Well, he missed one.
Jeff McDonald: Okay. Anyway, so he’s missed 15. He can miss three. Tom, you saw him after the game last night. How was he? Because he rolled that same right ankle that he said was sore. He rolled it pretty good, stayed in the game and everything, but—
Tom Orsborn: I saw a photo of that on social media. It was grizzly. I mean, it was grizzly. And as to be expected, he sat in front of his locker room with his two big feet in a huge ice bucket for a pretty good while. So who knows? He may pop up on the injury report, but he seemed fine. I mean, the guy’s incredible. Also in that game late in the final seconds, he’s diving for a loose ball.
Mike Finger: Winds up at the feet of Common, Tom, which I’m sure that you noticed. I’m sure you were all over that. I don’t know if you got a comment from Common after the game.
Jeff McDonald: I thought you were calling Tom Common. Like he’s just Common Tom. You said Common Tom. I was confused.
Tom Orsborn: I mean the guy—we’ve talked about it before—but he’s hitting the court left and right. He’s been doing it for three years. We talk about him being out and some people freak out about it, but he’s incredibly durable. It’s just incredible.
Jeff McDonald: He really is. For people that don’t pay a lot of attention, like casual Spurs watchers across the NBA, there’s this idea that Victor Wembanyama is somehow injury-prone, but he’s not. He’s the opposite of that. He missed a lot of games last season because of the blood clot issue, which to me is different from being injury-prone.
Jeff McDonald: He’s really only had one major soft tissue injury in his career and it was that calf strain to start this season, and even that was the Spurs just handling him with the kiddiest of kid gloves. He’s had so many of those ankle turns where you’re like, “Well, that’s a week and a half he’s not coming back,” and he’s back in the game like two minutes later.
Jeff McDonald: It’s that all the flexibility stuff he does, all the stretching stuff he does and has done since the maternity ward. All that stuff pays off, I think, and he’s a guy that has been remarkably durable. You hear this all the time how big men in the NBA can’t stay on the floor. Wemby can. He’s just had that one year where the blood clot shut him down.
Mike Finger: Bill Walton, Yao Ming archetype. I think that’s what people think of when they think of the broken feet and just huge lumbering centers that can’t move and that get hurt and are fragile down there because they’re carrying such a load. I think part of it is Victor’s not as big as either of those guys, I mean wide, heavy, as heavy as those guys.
Mike Finger: And what Jeff said about just—you see Victor over and over again since his rookie year, he will have an ankle turn where the sole of his foot is at a 90-degree angle from his fibula, and he just shakes it off. A lot of it is that stretching, that flexibility, maybe his youth is part of it, but he shakes those off over and over again. And I know he missed a game, it was because of an ankle turn last week, right? And he turned it again, but he doesn’t tend to miss multiple games at a time because of those.
Mike Finger: And we realize that we are all jinxing this right now, but he’s going to miss the next four. But the Spurs have 14 games left, he can miss three, he can play 15 minutes in one, I think, and we’re talking about to reach the 65-game minimum for postseason awards and whatnot. I don’t think that’s going to be a huge issue down the stretch.
Mike Finger: And even if for some reason he would sit tonight against Sacramento, which I don’t think is going to happen, that doesn’t put you on the precipice of being ineligible for those awards. I think there are still some opportunities to sit him during these last 14, because we can get into this playoff seeding. The Spurs are pretty well set at that two spot. I don’t see them moving up, I don’t see them moving down, and I do think there’s going to be opportunities over these next three weeks of the season to sit everybody a game or two just to set up for the playoffs.
Jeff McDonald: I was reminded of this this week. It’s been so long since we covered the playoffs, it works a little different now. It used to be back in the day you would definitely try to set up your stretch run. Gregg Popovich would try to set up that stretch run where you could rest your Timmys and your Manus down the stretch and let them get some rest so you don’t roll right into game one of a playoff series coming out of the regular season.
Jeff McDonald: But since the advent of the play-in tournament, you have five days off anyway if you’re the second seed. You’re waiting on that play-in tournament to finish. That rest is built in. I don’t know that it’s so imperative to get guys rest down the stretch. Now, if they’re bumped up, if they’ve got an ankle or sore this or that, sure, but rest for rest’s sake, I don’t know if that’s something you do. I think if anything, it starts to be too much time off if you’re sitting people like the last games of the season and then rolling into that five-day break before the start of the playoffs. So it’s less of an imperative for Victor to have to save those days for Victor. If his ankle hurts now, sit him now.
Mike Finger: Well, that’s a point well taken. And I don’t necessarily mean sitting him the last game of the season, but I’m talking about like the random back-to-backs down the stretch where you don’t want to push someone just in those last couple of weeks. They have one back-to-back left, right?
Jeff McDonald: Yes, Golden State, Sacramento on the first and second of April. Maybe you don’t play both of those.
Mike Finger: Four games at home the rest of the—to end the regular season, maybe you miss one of those. And I don’t just mean Victor, I mean all the nagging injury-type guys. It’s not just about rest, it’s about maybe a precaution of not playing every game just in case you don’t do something else. That’s not probably the greatest way to approach it, worrying about injury, but I could see a rest game here and there for some of the top guys.
Tom Orsborn: No, you’re right. They have that one more back-to-back: Golden State and then the Clippers at the Intuit Dome again. Jeff will be on that trip, in the secure location somewhere near there. But guys could, Keldon, he’s still got that shoulder, he played through that. Guys have played through stuff. Castle with his thumb, he played through that. It’s the NBA, it’s a grind. Yep.
Mike Finger: We’re getting closer to the playoffs and I’m sure we’ll have a lot of time to talk about this in future podcasts, but because the Spurs have pretty much settled into that second seed, the drama that’s left is who the Spurs are going to play and which side of the bracket you’re on. And that three to six jumble is sort of fascinating.
Mike Finger: A surprising team seems to be emerging on the Spurs’ side of the bracket. Are you guys as fascinated as I am by the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers are now a game and a half up in the third seed? And do you agree with me that that might be a good thing for the San Antonio Spurs, who I think match up pretty well against that team?
Jeff McDonald: Yes, I agree. I think that would be a great matchup for the Spurs because it’s kind of the flip of what it used to be, where the Spurs were older than dirt back in the playoffs and some of these teams just could out-athlete them. I think the Spurs are the other side of the coin when it comes to the Lakers, this Lakers team. The Lakers are older than dirt, and this Spurs team athlete-wise is a really tough matchup for those old dudes. So I think if they do end up in the third and you do get to the second round and you’re the Spurs, that’s as good a path as you’re going to get, I think, to the conference finals.
Mike Finger: I would agree, and it sounds crazy to be begging for a matchup with LeBron James and Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves—look at you there, they have good players. But Tom, going back to that game before the Cup. It was the Cup quarterfinals at Staples, at Crypto.com Arena, where the Spurs’ young big guards just made those old guys from the Lakers look really old and slow.
Mike Finger: I think that seven games of that, six games of that, five games of that could work out really well for the Spurs. They’re going to be at a huge experience deficit against the Lakers in terms of postseason games, and nobody can match up with LeBron in that category. But I think if you’re looking at the teams that you could possibly face in the second round—and they haven’t gotten past the first round yet, sure—but I think you’d relish the opportunity to face the Lakers as opposed to say the Timberwolves or the Nuggets.
Tom Orsborn: And Dončić gets his numbers, but Castle pesters him pretty good. And it gets in Luka’s head, too, and—
Mike Finger: And they go back at him. They make Luka try to guard, and if he doesn’t, they just brutalize him. So we’re getting way ahead of ourselves here, but I thought that was a noteworthy development that the Lakers beat the Rockets the other day. The Rockets are up and down as a lot of those teams are, but I think that would be—if you’re a Spurs fan looking for something to root for in that three to six mess, I think having the Lakers come out in the third spot is probably a positive thing.
Mike Finger: And then I think I would root for the Clippers to somehow get out of that seven-seed playoff hole. I don’t want to play them in the first round if I’m the Spurs. Of all the teams you could play there, I wouldn’t want to play them.
Jeff McDonald: I would agree with that. It seems like it’s either Clippers or Suns in that seventh spot, because it’ll be the winner of that seven-eight game. If you look at the standings and say, “Well, the Suns are how many games up on the Clippers now,” that really doesn’t matter because it’s going to come down to the one seven versus eight game. Whoever wins that game will get to play the Spurs. And I think Jeff’s right, I think you’d rather play the Suns than the Clippers.
Mike Finger: But all things that will unfold over the next couple weeks. We have the week ahead to look at. Tom, as we mentioned before, is heading to Sacramento. There will be a home game against the aforementioned Phoenix Suns on Thursday, a home game against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday, and then there’s another road trip. Who’s going to Miami?
Tom Orsborn: I am. The 3M’s: Miami, Memphis, Milwaukee.
Mike Finger: They couldn’t get you to Minnesota in there?
Tom Orsborn: I know.
Mike Finger: That’s quite a trip, Tom. Miami, Memphis, Milwaukee. You’ve got to pack for a variety of climates.
Tom Orsborn: Seems such a long time ago I was in Miami for the preseason as well.
Mike Finger: Where you would have never thought that on St. Patrick’s Day you’d be talking about a 50-win team headed to 60.
Tom Orsborn: Nope.
Mike Finger: But you can make a better prediction now, Tom. Four games ahead. Sacramento, Phoenix, Indiana, Miami before we meet again on this video podcast. What do you got?
Tom Orsborn: The push for 60 is on. Three and one, with the loss coming in Miami.
Mike Finger: I always like the details, the transparency of Tom Orsborn. Jeff McDonald, what do you got?
Jeff McDonald: I think it’s also three and one. Could be four and zero if they hold Bam under 80.
Mike Finger: That’s a good challenge. How about the prediction for next week? Are we going to be on video again?
Jeff McDonald: I think all the people that wrote in clamoring us to be on video, I think there’s going to be like a backlash clamor to turn the video off from other people.
Mike Finger: I think that might be the case. “We’ve seen enough of these idiots. Turn it off.” Well, we gave it a shot. We’re trying to embrace the 21st century here, 26 years into it. We’ll see how it goes next week. Until then, take care of each other and keep it real.
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