By Devon Birdsong | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-04-14 00:10:52
昨晚那种可以“走神”的感觉挺奇怪的。
这些年来，我一直很坦诚地表达过，每当马刺队的比赛失去悬念时，我往往会产生这种倾向。但在本赛季的大部分时间里，我根本无法像那样置身事外。
我认为，这是我对这支马刺队最高的赞美之一。毕竟在过去的几年里，我花了太多的第四节时间去绞尽脑汁，试图寻找新的切入点来描写一场场失利。
当然，当我2018年开始为本站撰稿时，我偶尔也得写写败仗，但在看了马刺赢了那么多年球之后，那时的失利几乎感觉像是一种新鲜事。
当时我根本无法预料自己卷入了什么样的旋涡，尽管我的第一篇文章最终写的是卡怀 (Kawhi Leonard) 的离开。
问题在于，你可以阅读关于伊卡洛斯的故事，阅读《罗马帝国衰亡史》，阅读巴比伦的陷落，但在你亲身经历之前，你依然无法真正理解那种自由落体般的坠落。人类经验的即时性有一种奇妙的力量，它让我们无法完全领悟我们是多么脆弱，尤其是在处于巅峰时刻。
2018年，马刺距离队史最令人惊叹的那座总冠军奖杯仅过去了四年。而那两次夺冠之间隔着的七年，在当时感觉就像永恒一样漫长。
现在，很难想象已经过去了十二年。我的意思是，马刺差一年就要经历连续七年无缘季后赛的窘境了，更不用说总冠军了。
不知为何，今年的繁荣感似乎将那段漫长的时光压缩成了某种无限短暂的东西。奇妙的是，一件好事几乎可以驱散那段艰难岁月中刻骨铭心的漫长感。奇怪的是，它能毫不费力地改变记忆的氛围。
这是人类记忆最迷人的方面之一：在更美好的现状光环下，我们会以这种奇特的方式去美化过去。我们在谈论坏时光时，总是将其置于好时光的背景之下。
[微笑着] “记得那时候有多惨吗？！”
[大笑着] “噢，是啊，那简直太糟糕了！”
我想，对比是产生感激之情的必要部分。我确实比以往许多同样算得上成功的赛季，更加感激马刺的这个赛季。
我记得我有幸见证了我女儿的出生。那是一段漫长而艰辛的分娩过程，言语难以形容其万一。然后，突然之间，一切都结束了。
当孩子降临到这个世界上时，事情进展之快几乎令人感到恐惧。孩子被递给她的母亲，然后递给我的那一小段时间，感觉就像是以毫秒计的，尽管我知道实际上肯定要长得多。
我清楚地记得，当我在她出生后仅仅片刻便剪断脐带时，我甚至在想时间本身是否加速了。没有什么能让你为那一刻的即时性做好准备。我不确定有什么能做到。
这与马刺这个赛季呈现出来的方式不无相似。我们都见证了其中的艰辛与困难，甚至知道终点会是什么，但不知为何，它依然让人感到惊喜。
马刺赢了62场比赛。赛季开始时，我给他们定下的目标是50胜左右，而我已经是那些人里比较乐观的一个了。
62胜并列队史第三高胜场数。马刺是西部2号种子，领先第3名多达8个胜场。他们是NBA历史上仅有的第3支能在两年内将胜场数提升40场以上的球队。他们还追平了30胜的队史客场胜场纪录。
这一切是什么时候发生的？！感觉前一分钟我还在写关于16连败和18连败、关于耐心、关于深静脉血栓的内容，然后突然之间，这支巨兽般的球队就成型了。我几乎每场比赛都守在电视机前，因为老实说，感觉无论落后多少，他们都能赢下任何一场比赛。
我知道在这些变化发生的过程中，我一直在写关于他们的报道，但这有点像是在怀孕最后一个月知道你的孩子大约有一个西瓜那么大，和你亲眼看到那个孩子降临在你面前之间的鸿沟。
也许这只是我们有限认知的局限性之一；知识既被存在的相对即时性所限制，也被其所扩展。这不仅仅是“眼不见心不烦”，而是“双鸟在林不如一鸟在手”中，那只鸟就在你手中的真切感。
我一直在思考，人类在活在当下和充分感激当下这两方面是多么糟糕。诞生的奇迹感觉是极少数没有任何干扰、没有任何分心、没有任何其他事情能占据优先地位的时刻之一。
这是一个强烈的事件，因为我们是如此专注地存在于那一刻；现代思潮为了追求这种状态，已经衍生出了无数的课程和方法。
我已经思考这件事快两周了。昨晚，随着马刺常规赛最后一场失利的最后几节时间流逝，我的推特动态逐渐转向绝望和焦虑时，我也在思考。
复活节时我也在思考，当时我看着我的女儿和她的堂兄弟姐妹们在那个巨大的游乐场上无忧无虑地嬉戏，那是两个冬天前我帮父母在他们后院安装的。
一个残酷的事实是，我们总是在延迟中去爱。
希波的教父奥古斯丁 (Augustine) 曾将“现在”分为三类：记忆，是过去事物的现在；关注，是现在事物的现在；以及期待，是未来事物的现在。
在这种现实的哲学愿景中，三者中只有一个由实际的、即时的现在组成——否则我们必须通过参照来定义它。而我们体验现在的方式之一是通过所有心痛的根源（期待），这似乎很贴切。
直到以后，我们才会比现在更快乐。直到那一刻过去，我们才会比现在更不快乐。我们在延迟中夸大其词、悲剧化，并感到隐隐作痛。
我正凝视着远方，电视静音，音乐软件在寂静中大声播放着，马刺正在进行常规赛最后一场比赛最后时刻的例行公事。这种表现是对本赛季所提供的安稳感的一种注脚。突然，一首儿歌响了起来，那是算法留下的痕迹，提醒着我曾经那些充满童谣和摇篮曲的车旅时光。
瞬间，我的女儿出现在我面前，蹒跚学步的样子是她早已超越的过去。
她还不到两岁，膝盖上下律动，那是蹒跚学步的孩子模仿跳舞的样子，唱着她最好版本的《一闪一闪亮晶晶》，还带着大舌头的发音。她渴望得到我的认可，那些表达自豪的话语。她需要这些话语，就像她永远不会停止需要从某人那里得到这些话语一样。
她正对着我微笑，我希望这一刻永不结束。我知道它既会结束，也永远不会结束。万物皆在终结，也从未终结，不断地终结，又不断地延续。
记忆是永恒也是瞬间，我想记住每一个时刻。我想注意到一切并将其带走。我们每个人都拥有无数个正在跳舞的女儿，无论是在当下还是在记忆中。
这个赛季是一个奇迹，也是一个悲剧。奇迹在于它展开的方式。悲剧在于我将永远无法重新体验它。而且，它还没有结束。
全身心地投入其中。感受这一切。马刺加油 (Go Spurs, Go)！
关键总结 (Takeaways)
- 卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 昨晚的三分球可能只有7投1中，但伙计，随着他获得的出场时间增加，那些闪光点正变得越来越密集且迅猛。我想那种看着他在第一节末段隔扣尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokic) 的感觉是无法复制的，但我几乎愿意把整场失利再看一遍，只为了再次体验他完成那一扣时我脊柱传来的战栗感，或者是仅仅一分钟后他对库蒂斯·琼斯 (Curtis Jones) 和大卫·罗迪 (David Roddy) 完成的那两次极具运动天赋的盖帽。他的远投表现仍有一些不稳定，这是可以理解的，但就像斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 一样，卡特在过去十场比赛中的三分命中率实际上超过了40%。所以，请把掌声送给投篮教练吉米·巴伦 (Jimmy Baron)，因为他今年在圣安东尼奥阵容中多位潜力球员身上完成了不可思议的工作。
- 我必须承认，如果管理层的意图是像泰德·卡辛斯基 (Ted Kaczynski) 寄快递那样直接把这场比赛“邮寄”掉（意指放弃比赛），我并不喜欢马刺派上卡斯尔、福克斯和哈珀。除了文班，这支球队之所以如此致命，是因为它可以在任何战术体系和比赛阶段中混搭后卫。在任何特定时刻，马刺都有多名球星级别的后卫共享后场，骚扰对手，像跑路者（Roadrunner）穿过峡谷一样穿梭在车道上。谢天谢地，哈珀只是伤到了拇指，目前被列入“每日观察名单”，但这本可能演变成灾难，因为替补席（以及凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson)）在没有他的情况下无法发挥出最佳水平。马刺需要能够依靠他们的深度作为季后赛优势，即使没有进一步的伤病，所以这感觉像是教练组的一次失策。不过，我明白你总得派人上场。
- 我认为俾斯麦·比永博 (Bismack Biyombo) 在本赛季结束后可能真的要离开了。在去年看起来已经有些老态龙钟之后，我以为他基本上已经触及了球员生涯的底线，但他本赛季看起来竟然更加步履蹒跚，以至于我对他为什么还在名单上感到困惑。我理解有些球员留在队里是因为他们对团队有好处，但马刺在这个休赛期绝对必须升级第三中锋的位置。无论是通过选秀还是自由市场，超越比永博和梅森·普拉姆利 (Mason Plumlee) 那日益退化的技能水平所需的资产成本应该都很低。考虑到文班和卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 本赛季都缺席了一些比赛（无论是分别缺席还是共同缺席），这是一个明确的需求点。
- 我是达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 的超级粉丝，而且通常习惯于在球迷因为他的合同而黑他时为他辩护，但必须指出的是，他最近在三分线外的手感绝对是冰凉的。他不仅在过去10场比赛中的三分命中率只有25%，而且自1月份以来，他还没有哪个月的三分命中率超过33%。诚然，他从来都不是外线的顶级神射手，但马刺需要他的命中率接近35%，才能在他和卡斯尔之间发挥最大的协同效应，因为各支球队都在寻找针对圣安东尼奥首发后场组合的方法。我真心希望他能尽快扭转局面。
- 我必须再次称赞斯蒂芬·卡斯尔本赛季的防守。即使是在没有全速运转的情况下，他对于任何对位球员来说依然是一个黑洞。如果你有推特，你应该看看我链接的这条推文中的一些图表。他让从卢卡·东契奇 (Luka Doncic) 到德文·布克 (Devin Booker)，再到亚历山大 (SGA) 的每一个人都吃尽了苦头。这就是为什么我开始称之为“卡斯尔的地牢 (Castle’s Dungeon)”。
随你批评他的进攻，但看看卡斯尔对东契奇、布克、马克西、凯德、加兰、德罗赞，甚至你们心爱的亚历山大做了什么。
阿门的防守确实很好。
但卡斯尔的防守绝对是个地牢。https://t.co/hj4oKzHR3v pic.twitter.com/1LZxPq4AuF
— Devon Birdsong (@ DevonBirdsong) 2026年4月13日
结语曲目——今晚的主题曲：
Lifehouse 乐队的《You and Me》
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：What we learned from the Spurs loss to the Nuggets
What we learned from the Spurs loss to the Nuggets
It was weird getting to zone out last night.
Over the years I’ve been pretty open about my tendency to do this when the game gets out of hand for the Spurs, but (for the most part) I just wasn’t able to disengage like that this season.
That is, I think, one of the biggest compliments that I can give this Spurs team, after years of spending 4th quarters trying to brainstorm new ways to write about losses.
Sure, when I started writing for the site back in 2018, I would have to write about the occasional loss, but it almost felt like a novelty after so many years of watching the Spurs win so many games.
I had no way of knowing what I’d gotten myself into, even though my very first article ended up being about Kawhi’s exit.
The thing is, you can read about Icarus, and The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and the sacking of Babylon, and still not really comprehend the free-fall until you’re in it. There’s something about the immediacy of human experience that insulates us from fully grasping how vulnerable we all are, especially at the highest of highs.
In 2018 the Spurs were just four years removed from the most astonishing title in franchise history. The seven years between titles had felt like an eternity.
Now, it’s hard to grasp that it’s been twelve years. I mean, the Spurs were one year shy of going seven years without seeing the postseason, much less a title.
Somehow, the prosperity of this year feels like it has compressed all of that time into something that feels infinitely more brief. It’s strange how a good thing can almost banish the visceral eternity of a more difficult time. Odd how it can effortlessly alter the atmosphere of memory.
It’s one of the most fascinating aspects of mortal recollection that we have this bizarre way of romanticizing the past in the glow of a better present. We talk about the good times in the context of the bad times.
[smiling] “Remember how bad that was?!”
[laughing] “Oh yeah, that was terrible!”
I suppose the contrast is a necessary part of appreciation. I certainly have appreciated this Spurs season more than a great many that were arguably just as prosperous.
I remember having the great privilege of seeing my daughter being born. It was a long, arduous labor to an extent that words can hardly do it justice, and then, suddenly, it was over.
It was almost frightening how quickly things moved once our child was out in the world. The span in which the child was handed to her mother, and then to me, felt like it moved in milliseconds, though I know it must have been much longer.
I can distinctly remember wondering if time itself had sped up as I severed the umbilical cord in what felt like mere moments after she’d been delivered. Nothing prepares you for the immediacy of the event. I’m not sure that anything ever could.
It’s not unlike the way this Spurs season feels like it has materialized. We’ve all been witness to the labor and the difficulty and even knowing what was on the other end of it, somehow it still feels like a surprise.
The Spurs won 62 games. I had them marked down for 50ish at the start of the season, and I was one of the more optimistic ones.
62 wins is tied for the 3rd most wins in franchise history. The Spurs are the #2 seed in the West, and were clear of #3 by eight wins. They’re just the 3rd team in NBA history to increase their win total by 40+ wins in a two-year span. They tied the franchise record for wins on the road with 30.
When did this all happen?! It feels like one-minute I was writing about 16 and 18 game losing streaks, and patience, and deep vein thrombosis, and then suddenly this monster of a team materialized, and I spent almost every game glued to my television set because it honestly felt like they could win any and all of them, no matter how far behind they were.
I get that I’ve been writing about them the whole time that changes have been occurring, but it’s kind of the like the gulf between knowing that your child is roughly the size of a watermelon during the final month of pregnancy and then seeing that kid pop right out in front of you.
Maybe it’s just one of the limits of our finite cognizance; that knowledge is both limited and expanded by the relative immediacy of presence. Not so much ‘out of sight out of mind’ as ‘a bird in hand’ is very viscerally a bird in your hand.
I think all the time about how humanity is so very awful at both existing in and fully appreciating the moment. The miracle of birth feels like one of the rare times that nothing else interferes, nothing else distracts, nothing else takes precedence.
It’s an intense event because of how present we are; something that the modern zeitgeist has proliferated into countless courses and methods in pursuit of it.
I’ve been thinking about this for almost two weeks now. I thought about it last night, as the final quarters of the Spurs’ final loss of regular season ticked away, and my twitter feed gradually turned to despair and anxiety.
I thought about it at Easter, as I watched my daughter and her cousins blithely frolic on the gargantuan playground that I’d helped my parents install in their backyard two winters ago.
It’s a brutal truth that we’re always loving things through delay.
Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, once broke down the present into three categories: Memory, the present of things past. Attention, the present of things present. And Expectation, the present of things future.
In that philosophical vision of reality, only one of the three consists of the actual, immediate present – we must otherwise define it by reference. And it seems fitting that one of the ways in which we experience the present is through the root of all heartache (expectation).
We will never be happier than we are now, until later. We will never be unhappier, until the moment that it passes. We hyperbolize and catastrophize, and ache in the delay.
I’m gazing off into the middle distance with my television muted and a music app playing loudly over the silence, as the Spurs go through the motions of the final moments of the final regular season game, in a display that serves as a commentary on the lack of precariousness that the season has provided, and suddenly a children’s song comes on, the algorithmic remainder of a time when car rides consisted of nursery rhymes and lullabies.
In an instant, my daughter materializes in front of me, tottering in a way that she’s well beyond now.
She’s not even two yet, bouncing at the knees in the way that toddlers mimic dance, singing her best version of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’, lisps and all. She wants my approval, the words that convey pride. She needs them in the way that she’ll never stop needing them from someone.
She’s smiling at me, and I hope it never ends. I know that it both will and never will. Everything ends and never ends and keeps on ending and not ending.
Memory is an eternity and an instant, and I want to remember every moment. I want to notice everything and carry it away. We all contain the multitudes of daughters dancing now and in memory.
The season was a miracle and a tragedy. A miracle in the way it unfolded. A tragedy in the way that I will never experience it anew. And it’s still not over.
Be present for it. Present for it all. And Go Spurs, Go!
Takeaways
- Carter Bryant may have gone 1-7 from three last night, but man are the flashes starting to come hard and fast with the minutes he’s getting. I don’t think it’s possible to bottle the feeling I had watching him dunk all over Nikola Jokic near the end of the 1st quarter, but I’d almost be willing to watch the entire loss all over again just to experience the shiver than went up my spine when he did it, or the hyper-athletic pair of blocks he had on Curtis Jones and David Roddy barely a minute later. There’s still some inconsistency from long-range, which is understandable, but much like Steph Castle and Dylan Harper, Bryant is actually shooting over 40% from three over the last ten games, so give shooting coach Jimmy Baron his flowers, because he’s done incredible work with multiple budding players on San Antonio’s roster this year.
- I have to admit, I didn’t love the Spurs playing Castle, Fox, and Harper if MATFO’s intention was to mail this game in like Ted Kaczynski. Outside of Wemby, the thing that makes this team so lethal is the way it can mix and match guards in any scheme and phase of the game. At any given moment, the Spurs have multiple star-caliber guards sharing the back-court, harassing the opposition and darting down lanes like the Roadrunner bolts through canyons. Thankfully Harper only sustained a thumb injury to the point of being listed as ‘day-to-day’, but that could have been disastrous, as the bench in particular (as well as Keldon Johnson) just does not function at their absolute best without him. The Spurs are going to need to be able to lean into their depth as a postseason advantage, even without accruing further injuries, so that felt like a miss from the coaching staff. Still, I understand that you have to play somebody.
- I think this might really be it for Bismack Biyombo after this season. After looking pretty creaky last year, I assumed he’d pretty much reached his basement as a player, but he somehow looked even more immobile this season, to the point that I felt confused at to why he was even on the roster. I understand that there are players you keep around because they’re good for the team, but the Spurs absolutely have to upgrade at the 3rd big man spot this off-season. Whether in the draft or in free-agency, it should be a pretty low asset cost to exceed the degrading skill of Biyombo and Mason Plumlee, and with both Wemby and Kornet missing some games this season (separately and together), it’s a point of clear need.
- I’m a big fan of De’Aaron Fox, and am usually in the habit of defending him against fans who hate on him because of his contract, but it has to be noted that he has been absolutely frigid from beyond the arc as of late. Not only is he shooting 25% from three over the last 10 games, but he hasn’t finished a month shooting better than 33% from three since January. Granted, he’s never been a sniper from downtown, but the Spurs will need him to be closer to 35% to maximize the tandem between him and Castle as teams look for ways to scheme against San Antonio’s start back-court. I’m really hoping he turns it around, asap.
- I just have to praise Stephon Castle one more time for his defense this season. Even playing at less than full-octane, he’s remains a black hole for whoever he’s matched up on. If you have twitter, you should take a look at some the charts on this tweet I’ve linked. He wreaked havoc on everyone from Luka Doncic, to Devin Booker, to SGA. There’s a reason I started calling it Castle’s Dungeon.
Critique his offense all you want, but here’s what Castle did to Doncic, Booker, Maxey, Cade, Garland, DeRozan, and even your beloved SGA.
Amen’s defense is really good.
Castle’s is an absolute dungeon. https://t.co/hj4oKzHR3v pic.twitter.com/1LZxPq4AuF
— Devon Birdsong (@ DevonBirdsong) April 13, 2026
Playing You Out – The Theme Song of the Evening:
You and Me by Lifehouse
By Devon Birdsong, via Pounding The Rock