Spurs Insider Podcast, 2026-04-08 09:14:00
专栏作家迈克·芬格 (Mike Finger) 与随队记者杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald)、汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn) 讨论了维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 的肋骨伤势，以及这对马刺队在常规赛收官阶段及潜在季后赛征程中的意义。此外，他们还探讨了为什么马刺本赛季的目标远不止取得60胜。
推荐阅读：
以下是播客的文字记录：
来自德克萨斯州南部一个高度安全的、可能被录像的绝密地点网络，这里是《马刺内幕》(Spurs Insider) 常规赛收官版。我是迈克·芬格 (Mike Finger)，今天依然由《圣安东尼奥新闻快报》的马刺随队记者汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn) 和杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald) 陪同。本周我们有很多内容要聊：一位 MVP 候选人的新伤情，一些值得推敲和探索的季后赛对阵，以及在常规赛结束前还有最后几场比赛。
但我必须说，伙计们，今天能参加这个播客我非常兴奋，因为昨晚我到达弗罗斯特银行中心 (Frost Bank Center) 时，被告知我的同事们，我尊敬的、非常欣赏其工作的同事们……他们告诉我，除非是在录制播客，否则合同上没有义务跟我说话。所以，我很兴奋你们今天不得不跟我聊天。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald)：我很兴奋能给你提供一些人类社交。
迈克·芬格：这就是我想要的。这就是我追求的。如果这就是我每周能得到 30 分钟、有时 35 或 40 分钟社交的地方……那这就是我一周的高光时刻。希望这也能成为听众们的高光时刻。汤姆，你怎么看？
汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn)：噢，迈克，我一直很乐意跟你聊天。我不知道这说法是从哪来的，真的不知道。
迈克·芬格：我这儿！你昨晚听见杰夫那么说了。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是我说的。
汤姆·奥斯本：好吧。
迈克·芬格：好了，我很兴奋能聊聊我们当地球员的情况。节目一开始，头号话题就是肋骨挫伤，可能……我不知道等到这期播客传到听众的播放器、CD 机、留声机或高保真音响系统时，是否会有关于维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 肋骨进一步检查的消息，但他昨晚确实肋骨挨了一下。哪怕只是挫伤，在一年中的任何时候这都不是什么好受的伤，尤其是即将进入季后赛的时候。杰夫，请简要介绍一下这次伤病/挫伤对本周余下时间以及未来的意义，从大局来看，包括奖项归属等等。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：嗯，这可能是文班亚马遭遇伤病第二糟糕的时机。最糟糕的时机可能是从现在起的一周半到两周后。但你肯定不希望在常规赛末尾、季后赛临近时，还在纠结如何处理像文班这样对球队至关重要的球员的伤病。
我们稍后会谈到奖项的影响，因为马刺现在必须权衡一些事情。文班在最后三场比赛中，必须在其中一场打满 20 分钟，才有资格参与赛季末奖项的评选。所以，他的年度最佳防守球员奖（我们都同意他会遥遥领先地拿奖）现在完全取决于他能否在最后三场比赛中的某一场上场打够 20 分钟。
现在，马刺必须权衡这一点与他进入季后赛时的健康状况。如果他感觉不适，你是否还要让他坚持打完 20 分钟只为了拿个奖？你会冒再次受伤的风险吗？这些都是他们接下来需要权衡的问题。对于一位初次执教、一支初次闯入季后赛的球队来说，这并不是你想面对的局面，因为还有很多其他事情要处理。
但这就是比赛，伙计。联盟的情况有时就是这样，球员会受伤。我想如果非要找出一丝慰藉的话，就像米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 所说，文班昨晚短时间内觉得他还能再打。他回来打了五分钟，所以他受伤后并没有立刻无法坚持，米奇·约翰逊认为这是一个积极的信号，既然他觉得之后还能打一会儿，伤势应该不会太严重。总之，我们昨晚在更衣室见到了文班。我想你当时也在场。我不知道你有多关注他的动作，这只是我的观察……
迈克·芬格：我在更衣室时尽量不去过度关注球员的动作，你懂我的意思吧？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：但当一个球员受伤并走动时，看看他的情况、看他如何支撑可能是个好主意。据我观察，他似乎有点小心翼翼（ginger），比如弯腰系鞋带和整理东西时。虽然没有痛苦地皱眉或尖叫，但在我看来，他的动作似乎有点缓慢。这段话肯定会被媒体转载。
迈克·芬格：所以《新闻快报》记者说文班亚马系鞋带时看起来小心翼翼。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：除非你想小题大做。但我只是告诉你，更衣室里没多少人亲眼所见、亲耳所闻，我只是在报道我看到的。所以除此之外，我们能做的就是等待下一轮检查。我的直觉是：如果他周三对阵波特兰上场，我会有点惊讶。我觉得显而易见的选择是让他休息一晚，然后决定如何处理赛季最后两场比赛。再说一次，这只是我的直觉。
迈克·芬格：我要报告的是，昨晚赛后文班亚马在更衣室柜位前，其他马刺球员正在热烈讨论威利·考利-斯坦 (Willie Cauley-Stein) 的职业生涯，因为赛后电视上正在播全美冠军赛。你可以看到斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 非常投入地观看康涅狄格大学的比赛，迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 则在为他以前的高中队友、以前在密歇根大学打球的 AAU 队友加油。
所以话题转到了老肯塔基球员，以及一般的大学篮球老球员身上。文班亚马虽然杰夫说他系鞋带时看起来很小心——这可能是真的——但在那场讨论中，他很好奇威利·考利-斯坦是谁。他说他听过这个名字。所以他并没有完全被伤病分散注意力。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：他还在开玩笑。他心情不错。
迈克·芬格：他还在开玩笑，心情不错。我想，汤姆，当你挫伤了……汤姆，你挫伤过肋骨吗？
汤姆·奥斯本：没有，但我身边有几个橄榄球运动员有过。托尼·罗莫 (Tony Romo) 曾经有过一次，那可不好受。
迈克·芬格：我曾经有过一次，确实不好受。我肋骨裂开时可不是 NBA 球员，但这种伤就是没法打石膏，而且……基本上你做的任何动作都会有点疼，某种程度上，这取决于对疼痛的耐受力。我想这取决于他们这周想如何处理。
就像杰夫说的，我认为文班亚马会在其中一场比赛中打 20 分钟。只是哪一场的问题。可能不是周三晚上，但我认为考虑到距离季后赛开始还有两周——大概 12 天左右——这不是他在这个时候可能遭遇的最糟糕的伤病。也许周五晚上对阵达拉斯时有办法让他打 20 分钟，即使他们不得不推迟到周日那场对阵丹佛、可能毫无意义的比赛。为了拿到那 20 分钟，他不需要打得太拼。但再说一次，这都是猜测。汤姆，你怎么看？
汤姆·奥斯本：是的，我认为米奇是对的。他能重新回到场上——是的，他当时很疼，我们当然注意到了——但我认为他能回来并正常发挥是一个好迹象。是的，我期待他在接下来的某场比赛中拿到那 20 分钟。
迈克·芬格：我不觉得他回来了，对吧？他疼得皱眉之后，还上场了吗？
汤姆·奥斯本：有的，他去了更衣室大约五分钟。他在比赛还剩 10 分 45 秒左右受伤，去了更衣室五分钟，然后回来了。
迈克·芬格：他确实回来了，好吧。
汤姆·奥斯本：罚丢了两个球，然后在还剩 40 秒左右时被换下。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：他回来后立刻罚丢了两个球，然后在五分钟内拿了八分。接着他自己要求下场，半场结束后我们就没再见到他。你在现场吗？我只是好奇。
迈克·芬格：我在现场。我，你知道……这是一个很好的指正。
汤姆·奥斯本：他离开更衣室时还带着那本厚书。他像往常一样拿起了一本厚书。
迈克·芬格：他确实带了一本厚书。我们要拆解赛后更衣室的每一个瞬间。他显然正在读《牧羊少年奇幻之旅》(The Alchemist)。
汤姆·奥斯本：哇。
迈克·芬格：现在他也知道威利·考利-斯坦是谁了。再说一次，我……我不会假装自己是医生，但我认为这基本上是疼痛耐受力的问题。这不是那种容易反复、让你担心伤势加重的脚踝扭伤或膝盖拉伤。如果是肋骨挫伤，哪怕是轻微的裂缝，也只是疼痛耐受力的问题。
我并不是在贬低或试图淡化这种痛苦，因为如果肋骨疼，很难进行篮球运动。但我怀疑，或者说猜测——这不作为报道依据——我猜测如果只是肋骨挫伤，他们会在接下来的三场比赛中找机会让他打 20 分钟。因为，当然，我们只是在谈论奖项。这与总冠军和季后赛之类的无关，但这是你想为你的球员做的事。我认为确保文班在这个令人难以置信的赛季获得应有的认可，是值得的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我同意，但想象一下当文班去封盖时，他为了够到球而拼命伸展身体。你能想象肋骨挫伤时那样做会有多疼吗？比如，你可能给他 20 分钟，但告诉他：“手别举过头顶。就跑跑位，做做操，别尝试封盖任何球。别人传球给你，你就传回去。”我这话说得有点滑稽，但我觉得如果他们真要这么做，必须得小心。而且你还得面对尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokic) 在内线背打他，用庞大的身躯撞击他。
迈克·芬格：没错，那就让他过去好了。我会选在对阵达拉斯时这么做。我知道那是收官战前两天……按小时算还不到两天。就让他跑 20 分钟。我们可能想多了；也许他周三对阵波特兰上场就拿个三双。
但我觉得有办法……再说一次，你说别让他把手举过头顶，我不认为有再次受伤的危险，再说一次，我不是医生，我不认为举手会有危险。这只是他在肋骨挫伤的情况下能忍受多少痛苦的问题。我真的倾向于期待这会发生。他会在其中一场比赛中打 20 分钟。
米奇·约翰逊没有提到，而我们目前也还没提到的一点是，接下来的三场比赛其实并不重要。你可以利用这三场中的任何一场让他打 20 分钟，而不必担心这会对排名产生什么影响。从技术上讲，存在一种数学上的可能性，即圣安东尼奥马刺队最终可能与俄克拉荷马城雷霆队战绩持平并赢得平分决胜，但这需要俄克拉荷马城在接下来的四场比赛中至少输掉两场，而我不认为俄克拉荷马城在很长一段时间内输掉过四分之二的比赛。
我不指望这周会发生这种情况。但通常来说，这些比赛并不重要。重点是，你不需要担心赢下这最后三场。保持季后赛的状态，保持锋芒，当然，让大家保持节奏，不要养成坏习惯。但如果你必须让一位 MVP 候选人、年度最佳防守球员的头号热门在场上打 20 分钟，那有点像表演赛。这会让比赛变得荒谬吗？让他在场上跑 20 分钟只为了拿奖是对科比·布莱恩特 (Kobe Bryant) 的不尊重吗？也许吧，但我认为马刺会这么做。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：噢，是的。这某种程度上就是那个规则逼你做的。
迈克·芬格：我的意思是，确实如此。这是 65 场比赛规则的另一个副作用，它产生了各种对联盟不利的后果。这是另一个：它迫使一支即将进入季后赛的球队可能要把 20 分钟变成一场表演。但你必须这么做。马刺战胜……我昨晚甚至不在……我昨晚在现场吗？战胜费城 76 人队的比赛中还有什么收获？在那之前，杰夫在丹佛报道并亲眼目睹了一场非常精彩的对阵尼古拉·约基奇和丹佛掘金队的比赛。你们对这些比赛有什么看法？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我觉得看这两个人在季后赛第二轮交手会非常有趣。因为每当他们同时在场时，总会有神奇的事情发生。这变成了，你知道，可以说是（对某些人来说是无可争辩的）世界上最伟大的球员与一个在不久的将来会夺走这一头衔的球员之间的决斗。他们交手的次数并不多。比如在丹佛的那次会面是他们两个……是文班今年对阵掘金时第一次保持健康。所以那是第一次约基奇对阵文班的较量，当然，那是一场载入史册的比赛。如果这种情况在季后赛第二轮发生，我们需要一个除颤器，因为那太精彩了。
迈克·芬格：汤姆，你怎么看？
汤姆·奥斯本：我想到了约基奇，说到书，他拿文班带书去参加全明星赛开玩笑，这就是我的想法。
迈克·芬格：我还没提过这个，但今年早些时候有人问过文班这个问题。这跟约基奇一点关系都没有，但当时我们在芝加哥，有人问文班关于……那是一个国际记者在做关于国际球员之类的报道，问文班关于约基奇去年嘲笑他带书去全明星赛的那个瞬间。文班的回答是：“我觉得他作为一个篮球运动员比作为一个喜剧演员更出色，”我觉得这回答很棒。
汤姆·奥斯本：漂亮。
迈克·芬格：我不觉得我们在哪儿用过这段话，但它很有趣。总之，这只是他们不同个性、不同比赛风格的一部分。
汤姆·奥斯本：但他们两个……在各自独特的方面，都有点“世界上最有趣的人”的特质。两个截然不同的人，但都非常……你知道，除了篮球之外，他们都有那种额外的维度，场外的维度。
想到他们在未来几年的多次季后赛系列赛中交手，这真的很酷。维克托显然比约基奇年轻得多，他们可能不会像某些人希望的那样交手那么多次，但未来几年可能会有那么几次。那些战斗，即使是在球场上，看起来也非常震撼。
汤姆·奥斯本：凯尔登可以邀请约基奇去博尔尼 (Boerne) 的牧场骑马。
迈克·芬格：我怀疑凯尔登的马达不到约基奇的标准。它们不是马车赛级别的。我觉得凯尔登的农场/牧场更具田园风光（bucolic），如果可以用这个词的话。更多是放牧之类的。如果我没记错的话，约基奇是一个有竞争力的马主。不是养耕马的人。
杰夫提到了文班对约基奇作为喜剧演员的评价，我很好奇他对队友卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 作为喜剧演员的评价会是怎样。卢克·科内特昨晚对阵 76 人表现相当扎实，在文班上半场受伤后不得不顶替他首发下半场，文班去了更衣室并回来打完了上半场，正如我的同事们指出的那样。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我确实注意到了。谢谢你指出来。我们没看到。
迈克·芬格：所以卢克不得不取代文班的首发位置。他还得取代文班出现在赛后采访台上。当被问及取代文班的方法时，杰夫，他提到他无法应对赛后新闻发布会上的多语言环节。但他确实至少用法语说了一个短句或音节，我觉得那挺不错的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，当我问他是否准备好进行采访的法语部分时，他说“Oui（音同We）还没准备好”，你是说这个吗？
迈克·芬格：那真的很棒！如果你喜欢冷笑话（dad jokes），如果你是那种喜欢冷笑话的人……首先，如果你喜欢冷笑话，你可能是《马刺内幕》的听众。如果你喜欢冷笑话，你可能是卢克·科内特的爱好者，因为他满脑子都是这些。那句台词很棒。
马刺如何……不是要表现得过度消极或“天要塌了”，但当文班亚马不打时，马刺表现得并不糟糕。如果他在季后赛的任何时候受到限制——杰夫，我想你在今天的《三点回顾》(Triple Take) 中提到了这一点，那是马刺对阵 76 人赛后在 ExpressNews.com 上总是很受欢迎的回顾——文班亚马的一次受伤就向你展示了这一切是多么脆弱，以及如果发生在季后赛或任何时候，超级巨星会多么快地离开。
但假设这真的发生了，马刺必须在季后赛系列赛中面对没有文班的一个半场、一节或一两场比赛。这支球队准备好应对了吗？对很多人来说，很多事情都会改变，这似乎显而易见，但这支球队在他不在场时仍然能做一些不错的事情。你对此有什么看法？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我的意思是，你问了一大堆。如果是一节或一个半场，那是一回事。但如果文班不得不缺席整个季后赛，你真的会担心这支球队晋级任何一轮的能力。没有他，他们能赢下首轮系列赛吗？也许吧，但我认为这充满了变数。
迈克·芬格：我会假设，也许这有争议，如果文班亚马在季后赛首轮一分钟都不打，而对手是菲尼克斯太阳、洛杉矶快船或波特兰开拓者——我认为这是三种可能性——马刺在这些系列赛中并不一定就是绝对的劣势方。
噢，我不是说劣势。我的意思是，他们甚至可能在系列赛中被看好。即使没有文班亚马。比如他们……对阵某些球队时会显得非常矮小……你不得不让梅森·普拉姆利 (Mason Plumlee) 打很长时间，也许让凯利·奥利尼克 (Kelly Olynyk) 对阵像菲尼克斯这样能冲击你的球队。
但我认为，某种程度上人们低估了，而且整个赛季都在低估除了文班亚马之外这支球队有多好。比如他是一个名副其实的 MVP 候选人，可能会在投票中排名第二，这是他应得的。他是这次翻身的第一、第二、第三、第四和第五个原因……他是马刺做到这一点的理由。
但他得到了很多帮助。比如你看斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle)，汤姆。米奇·约翰逊昨晚提到，这是一场典型的斯蒂芬·卡斯尔式的比赛，他拿到了什么，他的第五个三双？
汤姆·奥斯本：是的。
迈克·芬格：迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper)，我周三在《新闻快报》上写的关于他的文章——应该在周二晚上上线——正如卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 昨晚在更衣室告诉我的，如果他被其他 28 支球队选中，他今年就是最佳新秀了。他说也许如果他去俄克拉荷马城就不会是，但他只是……他没有像在很多其他球队那样成为球队的焦点。
迪伦·哈珀是个非常出色的球员。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔是个非常出色的球员。科内特打出了伟大的一个赛季。德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)，非常出色的球员。比如，我不认为在季后赛中失去文班亚马一场比赛，或者一段时间——我不知道为什么我们要聊这个，但这是播客……
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是你提出来的。
迈克·芬格：是我提出来的。我不认为那是灾难。我认为那是低估了马刺的表现。他们本赛季赢了 60 场比赛，没人预料到这一点。你知道，就像卢卡在湖人队受伤，那对湖人来说意味着末日。如果谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大在雷霆队受伤，那会打击他们的夺冠希望。但球队总要处理这些事情，我想我只是……我试图在这里表现得积极一点，即如果最坏的情况发生，也不是所有希望的终结。也许我这么说很疯狂。
汤姆·奥斯本：我同意。在没有他的情况下，他们是 11 胜 5 负。有 7 名球员得分超过 800 分。NBA 历史上只有第六支球队做到这一点。是的，你提到了那些打出伟大赛季的家伙。还有德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell)、凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson)……非常有深度，非常有深度的球队。他们在短期内可以生存。但是，是的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我同意所有这些，但正如我们说过无数次的，季后赛系列赛与常规赛不同。比如，在常规赛中，你可以在没有核心球员的情况下坚持一段时间并打出 11 胜 5 负。但当你进入季后赛系列赛时，一个回合、一个系列赛、一节比赛就能改变一场比赛，进而改变整个系列赛。差距是如此之小，以至于在没有核心球员的情况下很难感到乐观。
迈克·芬格：并不是说有人觉得在没有……的情况下击败丹佛掘金、俄克拉荷马城雷霆或明尼苏达森林狼或其他任何人会感觉很好。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我们见过一次这种情况，虽然不是最好的类比，但马刺曾经以头号种子的身份进入季后赛系列赛，在对阵孟菲斯灰熊的第一场比赛中没有马努·吉诺比利 (Manu Ginobili)，输掉了那场比赛，输掉了整个系列赛。是的，那支八号种子灰熊队可能比马刺这次面对的任何球队都要强，但那也是一支久经沙场的马刺队——比今年的马刺队更经受过考验。
所以我确实认为存在丢掉一场比赛就改变整个系列赛的情况。因此我认为差距非常小，如果你没有全员出阵，很难感到超级自信。就像我们上周坐在这里讨论他们首轮可能遇到的所有艰难对阵，那还是在没考虑文班可能不在场的情况下。所以还是那些艰难的对手，如果文班不在呢？那会困难得多。
话虽如此，尽管说了这么多，他们刚刚在没有文班亚马的情况下在客场大胜洛杉矶快船 20 分。所以……
迈克·芬格：是的，我们是在钻牛角尖。但我想说的是，常规赛和季后赛是不同的。我们在这里钻牛角尖，我想我们在大方向上是一致的。我还要抛出另一个显而易见的观察：你的球星受伤了，谁能保证对方球队的某人不会也受伤呢？你知道，这只是我的一种方式……
杰夫·麦克唐纳：如果第三场比赛有陨石撞击地球呢？
迈克·芬格：如果今晚整个文明都灭绝了呢？谁知道呢。我想表达的观点是，这本该是一个积极的观点——当然在这个播客里它变成了一个消极的——但这是对马刺的赞美，他们不仅仅是靠单核驱动。
再说一次，我想这个播客的大多数听众都意识到这一点，但这种球队的重生、时隔六年重返季后赛，不仅仅是因为一个超级巨星，这值得以某种方式庆祝。这在很大程度上归功于那个超级巨星，但他们在文班身边建立了一支优秀的球队，一支可以……让我们这么说吧：一支可以在 4 月初的一个周一晚上，在费城坚持完下半场的球队。
这值得注意。对手是费城，一支需要这场胜利、想要击败马刺来提升东部排名的球队，而马刺在那场比赛中拉开了比分。他们也能在对阵需要胜利来争取季后赛位置的快船队时生存。当文班休息一晚时，马刺就在直觉穹顶球馆 (Intuit Dome) 击溃了洛杉矶快船。我认为这值得注意，再次表示赞赏。
汤姆·奥斯本：他们非常有能力处理这种情况。他们在短期内有能力应对，不会出现任何恐慌。但杰夫的观点是有效的，是的。
迈克·芬格：我想我们都没错。此外，如果真的只是肋骨挫伤而不是更糟的情况——如果最初的评估是正确的——我想象他在两周、两周半后的季后赛首轮应该会接近痊愈。我们可能在白费口舌。
更多来自麦克唐纳医生的专家医学分析，根据某家美国公司的说法，这是你的官方头衔，我没说错吧？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：没错。
迈克·芬格：告诉听众们——这是我们每周对随队记者旅途幕后的窥探，杰夫。当你出差时，谁叫你麦克唐纳医生？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我去的每个地方，都被称为麦克唐纳医生。
迈克·芬格：因为在某家连锁酒店的官方个人资料里，当你办理入住时，你的文件上就是这么写的，对吧？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：25 年前当我注册奖励账户时，我在选择称呼的下拉菜单里点错了，那里问你想被称为先生、女士、医生还是别的。我想现在可以改了，但有一段时间你必须亲自打电话给人工客服才能更改，而我永远不会那样做。
所以现在每次我办理酒店入住，都被称为“医生”。如果对方不这么叫，那家伙就有苦头吃了。我可没假装读了四年医学院然后被人叫“先生”。
迈克·芬格：在视频平台上观看本播客的观众可以看到麦克唐纳医生今天的着装，顺便说一下，这是麦克唐纳医生的盛装。麦克唐纳医生看起来棒极了。所以想象一下这位仁兄在洛杉矶、纽约、迈阿密、密尔沃基或孟菲斯办理酒店入住……
杰夫·麦克唐纳：你觉得医生到哪儿都穿着刷手服吗？
迈克·芬格：他走向前台，想象一下前台职员低头看着屏幕说：“你好，麦克唐纳医生，今天过得怎么样？”这总是让我笑喷。但你是对的，也许他们旅行时并不都穿西装打领带。我们有……这是一份非常紧张、压力巨大的工作。我们有时必须放松一下。
汤姆·奥斯本：医生，我有个问题。你的领域是什么？你如何帮助别人？你的专长是什么？足科医生？还是什么？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我有英语博士学位。
迈克·芬格：噢，你是那种即使不做医疗工作也坚持被称为博士的人。我知道技术上确实如此，但你知道的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我最喜欢的是当我办理入住时，他们会说：“给您，麦克唐纳先生……我是说医生，”就像他们会自我纠正一样。那总是让我发笑。
汤姆·奥斯本：他们有没有说过：“医生，我有个问题，你能帮帮我吗？”
杰夫·麦克唐纳：我最大的恐惧是当我办理入住时，大厅里有人心脏病发作。“这儿有医生吗？”“有！”然后我不得不承认我只是个英语博士。不得不承认事实。
迈克·芬格：说到酒店和旅行，我们可以回到对马刺接下来的行程的猜测上。常规赛剩下的时间他们都在主场，但排名靠前的位置正在固化，我们能够对季后赛对阵做出更好的猜测、更科学的猜测。
你之前提到文班亚马和尼古拉·约基奇在第二轮相遇的想法；卢卡的受伤让丹佛更有可能稳居第三种子，与圣安东尼奥马刺处于同一个半区。看起来湖人和火箭将稳居第四和第五。
掘金可能会对阵森林狼，正如我们反复提到的，七号种子可能会出现太阳、快船，或者是波特兰。随着通往 NBA 总决赛之路变得更加清晰，对这些有什么想法吗？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：如果马刺……我不知道马刺怎么想，或者你们怎么想，但如果你认为波特兰比快船是更好的首轮对手，马刺有机会做点什么，因为他们明天就打波特兰。
迈克·芬格：你是说故意输球？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：嗯，你知道的。文班不会打，也许有些球员需要休息。给波特兰一个机会。我不知道马刺是否真的在玩这种博弈，但对于球迷来说，这是值得思考的事情。你更想看到谁？
我知道马刺身边的一些人——不是球队里的任何人，也不是负责战略的人——并不期待季后赛飞往波特兰的长途飞行。那是西部季后赛中航程最长的之一，甚至可能是最长的，从圣安东尼奥到波特兰，除非新奥尔良到波特兰更长。但就对阵而言，你宁愿对阵波特兰而不是菲尼克斯或快船吗？
迈克·芬格：我想我不知道，因为我最害怕的球队是快船，然后我刚刚看到马刺在没有文班的情况下，在客场拆解了这支急需胜利的球队。所以，天哪，也许那不是一个糟糕的对阵，我不知道。
波特兰似乎是那个……他们只是……波特兰现在打得太好了。从纸面上看，你可能会觉得波特兰是最容易对付的球队，但他们打得太好了，也许你并不想碰到他们。我不知道。就像我说的，我认为一切都会很艰难，无论对手是谁都不会轻松……马刺有理由赢下其中的任何一支球队，也有理由在对阵任何一支球队时陷入苦战。菲尼克斯打他们打得很好。快船有科怀 (Kawhi)。如果波特兰全员健康且目前状态极佳，他们可能比另外两支球队更有深度。你在跑随队报道吗？你和蒂亚戈·斯普利特 (Tiago Splitter) 有过交集吗？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：有的。是的，他是个冠军，伙计。
迈克·芬格：好吧，我不记得哪个……你是 07 年开始的，对吧？
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是的，没错。
迈克·芬格：那就对了。能再见到蒂亚戈会很有趣。与西迪·西索科 (Sidy Cissoko) 和布莱克·韦斯利 (Blake Wesley) 重聚。布莱克·韦斯利！天哪，那个系列赛会到处都是前马刺球员。其余对阵的简要综述（rundown）……rundown，一个词。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：是一个词，顺便说一下，已经改过来了。等着看明天的预览框吧，会让你大吃一惊的。
迈克·芬格：可能的第二轮对阵……我认为意义重大的是，如果马刺不得不对他们最喜欢的第二轮对手进行排名，你可能会想要湖人或火箭。我想，那些是马刺对阵起来最占优势的球队。但这可能不会发生。正如我之前提到的，那些球队已经进入了 4-5 名的位置，尤其是卢卡缺阵的情况下。
好吧，你喜欢对阵他们的原因也就是为什么这不会发生——他们没那么强。这一切都是为了说明掘金可能会对阵森林狼，我认为森林狼是除雷霆之外，马刺最不希望遇到的球队。因为即使森林狼打得不是特别出色，我认为他们代表了一个更强大的对手，原因我们之前讨论过——他们可以投入的高度，如果杰登·麦克丹尼尔斯 (Jaden McDaniels) 回归会带来麻烦，安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 可以成为季后赛野兽。
换句话说，森林狼与掘金系列赛的胜者，即使森林狼爆冷胜出，我认为对马刺来说仍然是一次严峻的考验。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：你知道，自 3 月 1 日以来只有一支球队击败过马刺，而且他们击败了两次，那就是丹佛掘金。所以这向你展示了那个对阵的情况。
但那些都是很接近的比赛；比如马刺在主场和客场的两场比赛下半场都领先两位数，但最后没能收割比赛。我认为这就是你在季后赛对阵那支球队时最担心的：一旦进入第四节，哪支球队能够执行好进攻并拿下比赛？
在那点上你会看好尼古拉·约基奇；拥有尼古拉·约基奇的球队在那种情况下几乎每次都会占据优势。文班那个尝试赢下比赛的投篮怎么样？
迈克·芬格：我怎么看？我只是说，这向你展示了即使你没有完美地执行战术——那可能不是战术板上画出来的——他几乎投进了。他太惊人了。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：那个出手机会还算不错。但我的意思是，在那种情况下，你可能会比世界上任何人都更信任约基奇。
然后是森林狼，马刺有一段时间没见到他们了，但那是另一支让他们吃过苦头的球队。我想他们输给过他们两次，其中一场赢得很……我想他们不得不守住……我不记得了，我那场不在。但马刺已经有一段时间没能在对阵他们的比赛中占到便宜了，尤其是这个赛季。
所以你是对的，如果你必须在分区决赛之前挑选除了雷霆之外你最不想面对的球队，可能掘金和森林狼是马刺最想避开的两支球队，而看起来他们无法同时避开这两支。
迈克·芬格：谢谢。谢谢。我终于在这个播客里说对了一件事。
杰夫·麦克唐纳：花了你多久，半小时？
迈克·芬格：确实。我们不得不加点班，才让我终于说对了一件事。不，我们会看看常规赛最后几天的情况，可能不会特别引人入胜。
但我们还是会看看文班是否能拿到他的 20 分钟。我强烈怀疑他在某个时刻会拿到的。如果他没拿到，我会感到震惊。然后下周我们就会知道首轮对手是谁。在下一期播客之前我们还不会知道。我们周二录制，附加赛将在周二和周三开始。我们会看看发生什么。但直到下次，照顾好彼此，保持真实。
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：Wembanyama’s rib and 60 wins
Wembanyama’s rib and 60 wins
Columnist Mike Finger and beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss Victor Wembanyama’s rib injury and what it could mean down the stretch for the Spurs and for their possible playoff run. Also, why the Spurs goals go beyond getting 60 wins this season.
Suggested reading:
Why Wembanyama’s injury comes at the second-worst time for the Spurs
After win No. 60, Spurs set sights on bigger prize
3 takeaways as Spurs win 60th despite Wembanyama leaving due to injury
How Spurs’ Stephon Castle ‘imposed his will’ on the Sixers
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
From a highly secured network of top-secret, possibly videotaped locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider regular season finale edition. I am Mike Finger, joined as always by San Antonio Express-News Spurs beat writers Tom Orsborn and Jeff McDonald. We have so much to get to this week: a new injury for an MVP candidate, some playoff matchups to ponder and peruse and explore, a few more games before the regular season comes to a close.
But I just have to say, guys, I’m excited to be on this podcast today because when I arrived at the Frost Bank Center last night, I was informed that my colleagues, my esteemed coworkers, the people that I respect and enjoy their work so much… I was informed by them that they are not contractually obligated to speak to me unless we’re on a podcast. So, I’m excited that you guys have to talk to me today.
Jeff McDonald: I’m excited to give you some human interaction.
Mike Finger: That’s all I’m looking for. That’s all I’m looking for. And if this is where I get it, it’s for 30 minutes every week, sometimes 35, 40… it’s the highlight of my week. Hopefully, it’s the highlight of the listener’s week. Tom, what do you think about that?
Tom Orsborn: Well, I’m always happy to talk to you, Mike. I don’t know where this is coming from, I really don’t.
Mike Finger: Me! You heard Jeff say that last night.
Jeff McDonald: I said it.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah.
Mike Finger: Well, I’m excited to talk about what’s going on in the world of our local cagers. Off the top of the show, the topic number one is the bruised rib, possibly… I don’t know if by the time this podcast hits your players, your CD players, your phonograph, hi-fi systems… if there will be any news on further tests of Victor Wembanyama’s rib, but he took a shot to a rib last night. And even if it’s a bruise, that’s not a fun injury to have any time of year, but especially heading into the playoffs. Jeff, just give us the overview of what that injury/contusion means for the rest of this week and going forward, and big picture, awards-wise, all that stuff.
Jeff McDonald: Well, it’s probably the second-worst possible time to be dealing with any sort of injury to Victor Wembanyama. The worst possible time would be like a week and a half, two weeks from now. But you don’t want to be going into the end of the season towards the playoffs wondering how to manage a guy’s injury that’s so important to the team like Victor is.
And we will get to the awards implications in a minute because the Spurs are going to have to balance something now. Victor needs, over the final three games, he’s got to play 20 minutes in one of those games in order to remain eligible for postseason awards. So, his Defensive Player of the Year award, which we all agree he’s going to run away with, it’s all contingent now on him getting himself on the floor for 20 minutes in one of these final three games.
Now, the Spurs have to weigh that against how healthy you want him going to the playoffs. Do you want him having to labor through 20 minutes if he’s not feeling up to it just to get an award? Do you risk reinjury at some point? Those are all questions that they’re going to have to weigh going forward. And it’s just not a situation you want to be in when you have a first-time coach, first-time team really going to the playoffs, having all this other stuff to manage, too.
But also, that’s just the breaks, man. That’s just the way the league goes sometimes; guys get hurt. And I think if anything, if you want to look for a silver lining, as Mitch Johnson did, Victor in the short term last night felt like he could play some more. He came back and played five minutes, and so the fact that he wasn’t just DOA after that injury, Mitch Johnson is taking that as some sort of silver lining that it must not be too terrible if he felt like he could have played a little bit after that. Anyway, we saw Vic in the locker room last night. I think you were there. I don’t know how much you were paying attention to his movements, and this is just my observation…
Mike Finger: I try not to pay too much attention to player’s movements when I’m in the locker room, you know what I mean?
Jeff McDonald: Well, when a guy’s hurt though, and he’s walking through, it would probably be a good idea to take a look at him and see how they’re holding up. And to my eyes, and it’s just my observation, he seemed a little ginger, like trying to get to bend over to tie a shoe and get his stuff together. It wasn’t like wincing or screaming, but he seemed to be moving a little slowly to my eyes. This is going to get aggregated.
Mike Finger: So Express-News reporter says Victor Wembanyama looked ginger tying his shoe.
Jeff McDonald: Well, only if you want to make a big deal out of it. But I’m just telling you, there’s not a lot of people that had some eyes and ears in that locker room, and I’m just trying to report what I saw. So other than that, all we can do is wait on the next round of testing. This is my gut feeling: I’d be a little surprised if he plays Wednesday against Portland. I think it seems to be an obvious just give him the night off and then figure out how you want to manage those last two games of the season. Again, that’s just my gut feeling on it.
Mike Finger: I will report that Victor Wembanyama at his locker last night after the game during a spirited conversation among other Spurs that touched on the career of Willie Cauley-Stein, because the National Championship game was on the TV during that postgame, and you had very engaged Stephon Castle watching UConn, you had Dylan Harper rooting for a former high school teammate, a former AAU teammate that plays for Michigan.
So the conversation turned to old Kentucky players, old college basketball players in general, and Victor Wembanyama, while Jeff McDonald says he looked ginger tying his shoe—that might have been true—in the middle of that, he was curious who Willie Cauley-Stein was. He said he’d heard the name. So it’s not like he was totally preoccupied by his injury.
Jeff McDonald: He was cracking jokes. He was in a good mood.
Mike Finger: He was cracking jokes. He was in a good mood. And I think that, Tom, when you bruise your… have you ever bruised a rib, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: No, but I’ve been around a couple of football players who have. Tony Romo had one one time, and it’s not fun.
Mike Finger: I had one one time and it’s not fun. I was not an NBA player when I cracked a rib, but it’s just one of those injuries that you can’t put a cast on, and you can’t… basically, everything that you do is just going to hurt a little bit, and in a way, it’s pain tolerance. And you know, I guess it’s a matter of how they want to handle this this week.
And like Jeff said, I think that Victor Wembanyama is going to play 20 minutes in one of these games. It’s just a matter of which one. Probably not going to be Wednesday night, but I think that this is something, considering it’s two weeks away from the start of the playoffs—what, 12 days maybe from the first game—it’s not the worst injury he could have taken at this time. And there might be a way to get him 20 minutes against Dallas on Friday night, even if they have to push it to Sunday in a game that might be meaningless against Denver. He doesn’t have to play hard through his 20 minutes to get his 20 minutes. But again, this is all speculation. What do you think about that?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, I think Mitch is right. For him to come back in—and yeah, he was in pain, we noticed that, of course—but I think that’s a good sign that he was able to come back in and function. And yeah, I look for him to get those 20 minutes somewhere here.
Mike Finger: I don’t think he came back in, right? Once he was wincing, did he?
Tom Orsborn: Well, yeah, he went to the locker room for about five minutes. He got hurt with about 10:45 to go, went to the locker room for five minutes, came back in.
Mike Finger: He did come back in, okay.
Tom Orsborn: Missed two free throws, he checked back out with about 40 seconds left.
Jeff McDonald: When he came back in, he missed two free throws immediately and then he scored eight points in a span of five minutes. And then he checked himself out of the game, and we did not see him after halftime. Were you at the game? I was just curious.
Mike Finger: I was at the game. I was, you know… that’s a good correction.
Tom Orsborn: He was able to leave the locker room with that hefty book. He picked up a hefty book as is his wont.
Mike Finger: He did have a hefty book. We’re going to break down every moment of the postgame locker room. He is reading The Alchemist, apparently.
Tom Orsborn: Woah.
Mike Finger: And now he knows who Willie Cauley-Stein is. Again, I think… I’m not going to pretend to be a doctor, but I think it’s pain tolerance, basically. This is not a tender sprained ankle or tweaked knee where you worry about a reinjury and making it worse. If it’s a bruised rib, if it’s even a tiny cracked rib, it’s just pain tolerance.
And I’m not diminishing or trying to understate how painful it is, because if your rib hurts, it’s hard to do basketball stuff. But I think that I would suspect, I would speculate—this is not for aggregation—I would speculate that if that’s what it is, a bruised rib, that they’re going to find 20 minutes for him to play in one of these next three games. Just because, sure, we’re just talking about awards. It doesn’t have to do with championships and playoffs and all that kind of stuff, but it’s something you want to do for your guy. And I think it’s worthwhile to make sure that Victor gets that kind of recognition for a pretty incredible season.
Jeff McDonald: I agree, but think about how it looks when Victor, you know, he’s going for a block and he stretches out as far as he can stretch to try to get it. Can you imagine how much that must hurt if you have a bruised rib? Like, you might give him 20 minutes but you tell him, “Do not put your arms above your head. Just run around, get some calisthenics in, do not try to block anything. When they pass you the ball, pass it right back.” I’m being a little facetious, but I think if they’re going to do that, they’ve got to be careful. Then you’ve got Nikola Jokic backing him down in the paint, putting that big body into him.
Mike Finger: Right, just let him go. I would do it against Dallas. And I know that’s two days before… what is that? It’s not quite two days before the finale in terms of hours. But just let him run around for 20 minutes. And we might be making too much of this; maybe he goes out and puts up a triple-double on Wednesday against Portland.
But I think there’s a way… again, you say don’t let him put his hands above his head, I don’t think there’s a danger, and again, I’m not a doctor, I don’t think there’s a danger of reinjury if he puts his hands above his head. It’s just a matter of what pain he can tolerate with a bruised rib. And I just really would lean towards expecting this to happen. He’s going to play 20 minutes in one of these games.
And the positive note that Mitch Johnson did not note, and that we have not noted yet, is that these games really don’t matter, these next three. And you can use any of these three games to get him his 20 minutes and not have to worry about what this does to seeding. Technically, there is a mathematical possibility that the San Antonio Spurs could finish with the same record as Oklahoma City and would win that tiebreaker. That would require Oklahoma City to lose at least two of the next four games, and I don’t think Oklahoma City has lost two of four games in a long, long time.
I don’t expect it to happen this week. But generally, these games don’t matter since they play the Spurs. The point is, you don’t have to worry about winning these next three games. Keep in shape for the playoffs, keep your edge, sure, keep people going, don’t develop bad habits. But if you have to throw an MVP candidate, the overwhelming favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, on the court for 20 minutes, it’s kind of an exhibition. Does that make a mockery of the game? Is that disrespectful to Kobe Bryant to have him running around for 20 minutes to get an award? Maybe, but I think it’s something that the Spurs are going to do.
Jeff McDonald: Oh yeah. It’s kind of what that rule forces you to do sometimes.
Mike Finger: I mean, it does. This is another side effect of the 65-game rule, which has all kinds of fallout, side effects that are not good for the league. This is another one. It’s forcing a team that’s about to enter the playoffs to maybe turn 20 minutes into an exhibition. But it’s what you’ve got to do. What else came out of the Spurs victory over the… I wasn’t even at… was I at the game last night? The Philadelphia 76ers, which followed a quite entertaining game at the Mile High City that Jeff did cover and did see all of against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. What are your takeaways from those games?
Jeff McDonald: I think it’s going to be really fun to see those two guys go at it in the second round of the playoffs. Because every time they’re on the floor together, something amazing happens. It becomes this duel between, you know, arguably or to some people inarguably the greatest player in the world and a player that’s coming to take that title at some point in the near future. And they haven’t played against each other a lot. Like that meeting in Denver was the first time both of them… that Wemby has been healthy against the Nuggets this year. So it was the first Jokic-Wemby matchup and of course it was one for the ages. And we’re going to need a defibrillator if this thing happens in the second round of the playoffs because it’s going to be amazing.
Mike Finger: Tom, what’d you think?
Tom Orsborn: I think Jokic, speaking of books, joking with Wemby about bringing a book to the All-Star game, that’s what I think.
Mike Finger: I haven’t brought this up, but someone asked Wemby about that early this year. It had nothing to do with Jokic at all, but we were in Chicago and somebody asked Wemby about… it was an international reporter doing something on international players or whatever and asked Wemby about that moment where Jokic was ragging on him for bringing a book to the All-Star game last year. And Wemby’s answer was, “I think he’s a better basketball player than comedian,” which I thought was nice.
Tom Orsborn: Nice.
Mike Finger: I don’t think we ever used that anywhere, but it was funny. Anyway, it’s just kind of part of their different personalities, different style of game.
Tom Orsborn: But they’re both… they both have some ‘most interesting man in the world’ to them in their own distinct ways. Two very different people but both very… you know, they’ve got that kind of extra dimension, off-the-court dimension aside from basketball.
It’s pretty cool, the idea of them going at it in multiple playoff series over multiple years. Victor’s obviously much younger than Jokic, and they might not get as many as some would like, but there could be a few of them over the next few years. And those battles, even on court, are just awesome to watch.
Tom Orsborn: Keldon could invite Jokic to the ranch in Boerne to ride some horses.
Mike Finger: I doubt that Keldon’s horses meet the Jokic standard. They’re not harness racing quality. I think Keldon’s farm/ranch is more bucolic, if that’s a word. It’s more of grazing, that type of stuff. Jokic is a competitive horse owner, if I’m not mistaken. Not a plow horse guy.
Jeff had mentioned that Victor evaluation of Jokic as a comedian, I wonder what his evaluation of his teammate Luke Kornet as a comedian would be, where Luke Kornet had a pretty solid night last night against the 76ers, had to start the second half for Victor after Victor got injured in the first half, went to the locker room and came back to finish the first half, as my colleagues had noted.
Jeff McDonald: I did notice that. Thanks for pointing that out. We didn’t see.
Mike Finger: So Luke had to replace Vic in the starting lineup. He also had to replace Vic on the postgame interview podium. And when queried about his approach for replacing Victor, Jeff, he mentioned that he was not going to be able to handle the multilingual dimension of the postgame press conference. But he did do at least a small sentence or syllable in French, and I thought that was pretty good.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, when I asked him if he was prepared to do the French portion of the interview and he said “Oui are not prepared,” is that what you mean?
Mike Finger: That was really good! If you’re in the mood for dad jokes, if you’re that kind of person who enjoys dad jokes… first of all, if you like dad jokes, you might be a Spurs Insider listener. And if you enjoy dad jokes, you might be a Luke Kornet enjoyer because he’s full of those. That was a good line.
How do the Spurs… not to be overly negative or ‘sky is falling’, but the Spurs have not been terrible when Victor Wembanyama does not play. If he is limited at any point in the playoffs—and I think you mentioned this in the Triple Take today, Jeff, the always popular Triple Take, the takeaways on ExpressNews.com after the Spurs-Sixers game—that just an injury to Victor Wembanyama kind of shows you how delicate this is and how quickly that a superstar could be taken away, if it happens in the playoffs, if it happens anytime.
But let’s just say that does happen, the Spurs have to face a half or a quarter or a game or two in a playoff series without Victor. How is this team poised to deal with that? It probably seems obvious to a lot of people that a lot of things change, but this team still can do some good stuff when he’s not on the floor. What are your thoughts on that?
Jeff McDonald: I mean, you asked a mouthful there. If it’s a quarter or a half, that’s one thing. But if Wemby’s having to miss entire games of the playoffs, you really worry about this team’s ability to advance past any round. Can they win a first-round series without him? Maybe, but I think it casts it into a lot of doubt.
Mike Finger: I would posit, and maybe this is controversial, that if Victor Wembanyama does not play a single minute in the first round of the playoffs and the opponent is either the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, or Portland Trail Blazers—which I think are the three possibilities—that the Spurs are not for sure not overwhelming underdogs in any of those series.
Oh, I don’t mean underdogs. I mean, they might actually be a favorite in a series. Even without Victor Wembanyama. Like they’re… that would make them awfully small against some of those… you’d have to have a lot of Mason Plumlee minutes, maybe some Kelly Olynyk minutes against a team like Phoenix who can batter you a little bit.
But I think that in a way people are underrating, and have all season long, how good this team has been aside from Victor Wembanyama. Like he’s a worthy MVP candidate, probably going to finish second in the voting, deserves every bit of it. He is reason one, two, three, and four and five about how this turnaround… he’s the reason why the Spurs have done this.
But he’s gotten a lot of help. And they… like you look at Stephon Castle, Tom. Mitch Johnson mentioned last night that this was a quintessential Stephon Castle game where he got what, his fifth triple-double?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah.
Mike Finger: Dylan Harper, who I’m writing about in the Express-News on Wednesday—should be up on Tuesday evening—as Carter Bryant told me in the locker room last night, if he would have been drafted by 28 other teams, he’d be rookie of the year this year. He said maybe if he went to Oklahoma City he wouldn’t be, but he’s just… he hasn’t got the focal point of his team the way he would be on so many others.
Dylan Harper’s a really good player. Stephon Castle’s a really good player. Kornet’s had a great year. De’Aaron Fox, a really good player. Like, I don’t think that losing Victor Wembanyama for a game in the playoffs, a stretch of games—and I don’t know why we’re talking about this, but it’s a podcast…
Jeff McDonald: You brought it up.
Mike Finger: I brought it up. I don’t think that’s a disaster. I think that’s underselling how good the Spurs have been. They won 60 games this season, which nobody saw coming. And you know, like Luka is injured with the Lakers and that’s spelling doom for the Lakers. If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got hurt for the Thunder, that would put a damper on their title hopes. But teams deal with this stuff, and I think it’s just… I’m trying to be sort of positive here in that if the worst happens, it’s not the end of all hopes. Maybe I’m crazy for saying that.
Tom Orsborn: I agree. They’re 11 and 5 without him. Seven players with more than 800 points. Only the sixth team in NBA history to do that. Yeah, and you mentioned the guys that are having great years. And you’ve got Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson… very deep, very deep team. They can survive in the very short term. But yeah.
Jeff McDonald: I agree with all that, but as we’ve said a million times, a playoff series is different than the regular season. Like, you can survive a stretch and go 11 and 5 without your best player in the regular season. But when you get into a playoff series, one play, one series, one quarter can change a game, which in turn changes an entire series. The line is so thin that it’s just hard to feel good about it having to win it without your best player.
Mike Finger: Not saying anybody feels good about having to win to beat the Denver Nuggets or the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Minnesota Timberwolves or whoever without…
Jeff McDonald: We saw this once, and it’s not the greatest comparison, but the Spurs once went into a playoff series as the number one seed, did not have Manu Ginobili for the very first game against the Memphis Grizzlies, lost that game, lost the series. And yes, that was a better eight-seed Grizzlies team than probably anything the Spurs will face this time around, but that was also a very battle-tested Spurs team, too—more battle-tested than this year’s Spurs team.
So I do think there’s a situation where you drop one game and it changes the whole series. And so I think the line is so thin it’s just hard to feel super confident if you don’t have all your horses. Like we were sitting here last week talking about all the tough matchups they were going to have in the first round possibly, and that was without considering Victor might not be there. So it’s the same teams that were going to be tough matchups, and what if Victor’s not there? It’s going to be a much harder pull.
That being said, all that being said, they just played the Los Angeles Clippers without Victor Wembanyama and beat them by 20 on the road. So…
Mike Finger: Yes, we’re splitting hairs. But the regular season is different than the playoffs, is all I’m saying. We’re splitting hairs here, I think we agree in broad strokes on all this stuff. I would throw in another obvious observation: that your star gets hurt, who’s to say that somebody on the other team doesn’t get hurt too? You know, this is all just a way of me making…
Jeff McDonald: What if a meteor hits the Earth in game three?
Mike Finger: What if an entire civilization is wiped out tonight? Who knows. The point I’m trying to make, and it’s supposed to be a positive one—and of course on this podcast it’s become a negative one—but it’s a compliment to the Spurs that they are not just a one-horse engine.
And again, I think most listeners of this podcast realize that, but it’s worth celebrating in a way that this rebirth of this franchise, this return to the playoffs after six years, is not just because of one superstar player. It’s in large part due to that one superstar player, but they’ve done a good job of building a team around Victor and a team that can… let’s just put it this way: that can survive a second half on a Monday night in early April against Philadelphia.
That’s worth noting. Against Philadelphia, a team that needed that victory, that wanted to beat the Spurs to improve their seeding in the East, and they pulled away in that game. And they can survive a game against the Clippers, who needed a victory for playoff positioning. When Victor takes a night off, the Spurs just blowed out the Los Angeles Clippers at the Intuit Dome. I think that’s worth noting and again, paying a compliment there.
Tom Orsborn: They’re very equipped to handle it. They’re equipped to handle it in the short term, there won’t be any panic. But Jeff’s points are valid, yeah.
Mike Finger: I think we’re all right. Also, if it really is a rib contusion and not something worse—if that initial evaluation is correct—I imagine he’ll be close to fine in two weeks, two and a half weeks during the first round of the playoffs. We may be talking about this for naught.
More expert medical analysis from Dr. McDonald, which is your official title according to one American corporation, am I correct about that?
Jeff McDonald: That is correct.
Mike Finger: Tell the listeners—this is our weekly look behind the scenes of a traveling beat reporter on the road, Jeff. When you go on the road, who calls you Dr. McDonald?
Jeff McDonald: Everywhere I go, I’m called Dr. McDonald.
Mike Finger: Because on your official profile with a certain hotel chain, I think that’s what your file says when you check into the hotel, right?
Jeff McDonald: 25 years ago when I signed up for the rewards account, I hit the wrong drop-down menu where it says you do you want to be called Mr., Mrs., Doctor, whatever. And I think it can be changed now, but for a while you had to actually call in to talk to a human to have them change that, and I just was never going to do that.
So now every time I check into a hotel, I’m referred to as Doctor. And if I’m not, that guy’s got hell to pay. I didn’t pretend to go to medical school for four years to be called Mr.
Mike Finger: The viewers of this podcast on the video platforms can look at Dr. McDonald and his wardrobe of the day, and this is Dr. McDonald dressed up, by the way. This is Dr. McDonald looking great. So imagine this fellow checking into a hotel in Los Angeles or New York or Miami or Milwaukee or Memphis…
Jeff McDonald: Do you think doctors just wear their scrubs everywhere?
Mike Finger: He walks up to the front desk and picture the front desk clerk looking down at the screen and saying, “Hello, Dr. McDonald, how are you doing today?” That always cracks me up. But you’re right, maybe they don’t all wear suits and ties on their travels. We’ve got… it’s a very intense, stressful job. We have to downshift sometimes.
Tom Orsborn: I’ve got a question for you, Doc. What’s your field? How do you help people? What’s your specialty? Podiatrist? What?
Jeff McDonald: I have a Doctorate in English.
Mike Finger: Oh, you’re one of those who insist on being called Doctor even though they don’t do medical stuff. I know it’s technically true, but you know.
Jeff McDonald: My favorite though is when I’ll go to check in and they’ll be like, “Well, here you go Mr. McDonald… I mean Dr.,” like they’ll correct themselves. That always makes me laugh.
Tom Orsborn: They ever say, “Doc, I got this problem, can you help me with this?”
Jeff McDonald: My biggest fear is that someone’s going to be having a heart attack in the lobby while I’m checking in. “Is there a doctor in the house?” “Yes!” and I’m going to have to admit that I’m just a Doctor of English. Have to admit the truth.
Mike Finger: Speaking of hotels and travels, we can go back to speculating about where the Spurs travels will take them next. They’re at home for the rest of the regular season, but things are sort of congealing, solidifying at the top of the standings where we’re able to make some better guesses, some more educated guesses about playoff matchups.
And you mentioned earlier the thought of Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic meeting in the second round; that injury to Luka has made that much more likely for Denver to settle into the third seed on the same side of the bracket as the San Antonio Spurs. It’s looking like the Lakers and the Rockets are going to be settling in at four and five.
The Nuggets might be playing the Timberwolves, and again as we’ve mentioned over and over again, there’s that Phoenix-Clippers, possibly Portland scenario for the seven seed. Any thoughts on that as it becomes more apparent what the road to the NBA finals might look like for the local cagers?
Jeff McDonald: If the Spurs… I don’t know what the Spurs think about it or what you guys think about it, but if you think Portland is a better first-round matchup than the Clippers, the Spurs have a chance to do something about it because they play Portland tomorrow.
Mike Finger: You mean lose on purpose?
Jeff McDonald: Well, you know. Victor’s not going to play, maybe some guys need some rest. Give Portland a shot at it. I don’t know if the Spurs are really playing those kind of chess games, but for fans, that’s something to think about. Who would you rather see?
I know some people around the Spurs—not anyone on the team or overseeing the strategy or anything—are not looking forward to that long plane flight to Portland in the playoffs. That’s one of the longest ones maybe the longest one you can make in the Western Conference playoffs is San Antonio to Portland, unless New Orleans to Portland’s longer. But in terms of matchup-wise, would you rather match up against Portland than Phoenix or the Clippers?
Mike Finger: I guess I don’t know because the team I was most frightened of was the Clippers, and then I just watched the Spurs dismantle them without Victor on the road in a game that they needed to play. So, man, maybe that’s not such a bad matchup, I don’t know.
Portland seems to be the one that… they’re just… Portland’s just playing so well is the thing. Like on paper you’d look at Portland as maybe the team that’d be the easiest out, but they’re just playing so well that maybe you don’t want a piece of them. I don’t know. Like I said, I think everything’s going to be tough, nothing’s going to be easy no matter who… there’s reasons the Spurs should win against any of those teams and there’s reasons why it could be tough against any of those teams. Phoenix plays them very well. The Clippers have Kawhi. Portland might be a deeper team than either of those teams if they’re all healthy and playing really great right now. So all three of those teams are going to be challenging in the first round. Were you on the beat? Did you overlap with Tiago Splitter?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah. Yeah, he was a champion, buddy.
Mike Finger: Well, I couldn’t remember which… you started what, '07, right?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, that’s right.
Mike Finger: There you go. That would be fun to see Tiago again. Reunion with Sidy Cissoko and Blake Wesley. Blake Wesley! Boy, it’d be full of former Spurs, that series. The rundown on the rest of the matchups… rundown, one word.
Jeff McDonald: It’s one word, that’s been fixed by the way. Wait until you see tomorrow’s preview box. It’s going to blow your mind.
Mike Finger: Possible second-round matchups… I think what’s significant there is if the Spurs had to rank their favorite second-round matchups, you’d probably want the Lakers or the Rockets. Like, those are the teams that the Spurs match up best against, I think. And that’s probably not going to happen. Like those teams have, as I mentioned earlier, moved into that 4-5 spot most likely, especially with Luka being out.
Well, the reason you like to play them is the reason it’s not going to happen—they’re not as good. Well, all this is to say that the Nuggets could be playing the Timberwolves, who I think are, after the Nuggets, the second least likely or the least favorite team you’d want to play if you’re the Spurs. Because even though the Timberwolves haven’t played great, they represent a more formidable opponent I think for the reasons we’ve discussed before—the size they can throw at you, if Jaden McDaniels comes back he presents problems, Anthony Edwards can be a playoff beast.
In other words, just the winner of that Timberwolves-Nuggets series, even if the Timberwolves pull off the upset, I think still could be a stiff test for your Spurs.
Jeff McDonald: You know, there’s only one team that’s defeated the Spurs since March the 1st, and they’ve done it twice, and that’s the Denver Nuggets. So that shows you where that matchup is at.
But they are close games; like the Spurs were up by double digits in the second half of both of those games, both at home and on the road, and kind of couldn’t close it at the end. I think that’s what you worry about in the playoffs going up against that team most of all: is once you get to a fourth-quarter game, which team is going to execute the offense that it needs to get the game, to take the game?
And you give the edge to Nikola Jokic there; the team with Nikola Jokic is going to have the edge when it gets to that situation almost every time. How about that shot that Victor attempted to win the game?
Mike Finger: What are my thoughts on it? I’m just saying like that shows you that even if you don’t run a play perfectly—and that’s probably not what was drawn up in the huddle—he nearly made the thing. He’s spectacular.
Jeff McDonald: It was a decent enough look. But I mean, you’re going to trust Jokic in that situation more than anybody in the world, probably.
And then the Timberwolves are, you know, the Spurs haven’t seen them in a while, but that’s another team that they’ve struggled with. I think they’ve lost to them twice and one of the wins was pretty… I think they had to hold… I can’t remember, I wasn’t at that game. But that hasn’t been an easy matchup for the Spurs in a while, and especially this season.
So you’re correct in that if you had to pick the teams outside of the Thunder that you did not want to face before the conference finals, probably the Nuggets and the Wolves are the two teams the Spurs would prefer to avoid, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to be able to avoid both of them.
Mike Finger: Thank you. Thank you. I got something right in this podcast.
Jeff McDonald: Took you what, half an hour?
Mike Finger: It did. We had to go a little overtime for me to finally be right about something. No, we’ll see the next few days of the regular season, probably not going to be overly compelling.
But still, we’ll see if Victor gets his 20. I would strongly suspect that he does get his 20 at some point. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t. And then we’ll find out next week who that first-round opponent is. We won’t know until after the next podcast. We tape on Tuesdays, that play-in tournament will start Tuesday and Wednesday. We’ll see what happens. But until next time, take care of each other and keep it real.