By Jeje Gomez | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-04-15 20:21:46
马刺刚刚结束了队史胜率第四高的赛季。这是圣安东尼奥历史上最强的球队之一吗？还是我们需要等待季后赛的检验才能下结论？
玛丽琳·杜宾斯基 (Marilyn Dubinski)： 在给他们排名之前，我们绝对需要看看季后赛会发生什么。有些战绩稍逊的马刺队最终夺冠了，因此他们永远会被高度评价。相反，马刺队史最佳常规赛战绩是 2015-16 赛季的 67 胜 15 负，但我们对那支球队的主要记忆是他们在第二轮输给了雷霆队，无论那场比赛有多大争议（迪昂·维特斯，哎），而不是常规赛有多伟大。这支球队将永远被铭记的一点是，他们完成了队史最伟大的翻身仗之一。虽然他们 28 胜的进步幅度没有超过 1989-90 赛季的 35 场或 1997-98 赛季的 36 场，但这可能是一个更大的惊喜。
马克·巴灵顿 (Mark Barrington)： 这是我见过最令人惊叹的转折，一支几乎没有竞争力的球队变成了联盟精英。但要成为圣安东尼奥历史上最强的球队之一，他们必须在季后赛中表现出色。这也许是史上最佳常规赛之一，但对于一支拥有五个冠军的球队来说，标杆远高于常规赛。如果这支球队夺冠，这将是队史第二好的年份，仅次于 1999 年夺得首冠。我不知道这支球队是否准备好了，但这看起来是有可能的。他们没有太多的季后赛经验，但我不认为有什么能吓倒他们。
比尔·黄 (Bill Huan)： 我们需要看看季后赛会发生什么。在对他们在马刺历史上的地位下结论之前，这支球队需要经历季后赛的熔炉。我们以前见过精英级别的常规赛球队在局势艰难时崩盘。既然我已经说完了扫兴的话，我可以很坦然地说，考虑到赛季前的预期以及他们相比去年的转变，这可能是队史最有趣的赛季之一。当然，马刺第一次夺冠时我还没出生，我也只做了十年的球迷，所以欢迎像孩子们喜欢说的那样来“揭穿”我。
德文·博德桑 (Devon Birdsong)： 史上最佳常规赛球队之一？是的，我认为这一点现在已经板上钉钉了。在赛季最后四分之一的时间里，我一直将今年的阵容与 2014 年的马刺进行比较，他们的净效率几乎完全相同。他们甚至都拿到了 62 胜 20 负，如果不是因为雷霆队，他们也会像 2014 年的马刺一样成为头号种子。然而，整体评价始终由戒指决定，所以季后赛是他们必须赢得这一荣誉的地方。不过，即使他们只是打进西部决赛，也足以让他们成为队史前十的球队，在马刺这种底蕴深厚的球队中，这可不是一个小成就。显然，我们都更想要一个冠军。那才会是一个有趣的排名练习。
杰杰·戈麦斯 (Jeje Gomez)： 潜力就在那里。战绩说明了一切，净效率也令人印象深刻。对于大多数球队来说，很容易称他们为队史最佳。但不幸的是，对于这个版本的马刺来说，衡量标准是那些冠军球队，所以必须考虑季后赛。如果他们打进分区决赛，他们将在圣安东尼奥历史最佳球队中占据一席之地，但在季后赛取得成功之前，他们还不能被视为其中之一。
常规赛有很多精彩集锦和大时刻。你最喜欢哪一个？
杜宾斯基： 随口一说，维特克·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 在常规赛揭幕战中的强势回归非常特别，尤其是他在克服了深静脉血栓 (DVT) 之后，而且他让库珀·弗拉格 (Cooper Flagg) 看起来像个不知所措的孩子，这更是锦上添花。（虽然现在消息更新了：他不再是那样了，他会变得很特别。）他们还通过在洛杉矶的胜利以及在拉斯维加斯对阵雷霆的比赛，让我开始关心起杯赛。说到这个，对阵雷霆取得 4 胜 1 负的战绩永远是一段美好的回忆。最后，谁能忘记整个二月及之后的冲刺阶段？那种势头只有真正的冠军争夺者才能打出来。
巴灵顿： 对我来说，可能是 3 月 6 日逆转快船队 25 分的那场比赛。他们克服了平淡的开局，在比赛后期接管了比赛，锁死了科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard)，将一个糟糕的夜晚变成了胜利。这衡量了这支球队的韧性，他们在第三节落后 25 分时没有放弃，并始终保持信念。但整个赛季都很特别，我不会错过其中的任何一刻。
黄： 那一定是文班亚马在揭幕战中的表现。我现在每周仍会看一次那场比赛的集锦，我真心认为那是任何运动、任何运动员历史上最疯狂的单场集锦之一。雅各布·托比 (Jacob Tobey) 那句文班亚马是“我们篮球想象力的产物”也是我最喜欢的解说词之一，最棒的是，整个赛季从那以后一直在走上坡路。
博德桑： 对我来说，这在文班亚马超高效的 40 分表现，以及哈珀和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 在外线手感热得发烫之间难分伯仲。在经历了外线起伏之后，卡斯尔在大约一个半月的时间里三分命中率达到了 40%，而迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 在同一时期的命中率实际上达到了 50%。难怪马刺在那段时间里成了一个几乎无法破解的谜题。与此同时，文班亚马追平了“海军上将”大卫·罗宾逊单赛季 40 分 10 篮板场次最多的纪录（5 次），而且是在场均出场时间不足 30 分钟的情况下完成的。看他以那种方式变得不可阻挡，真的无与伦比。而且其中好几场比赛差一点就打出了 40+20 的数据。更疯狂的是？他在另外四场比赛中得到了 38 分以上，差一点就让这种超高效的 40 分狂暴表现翻倍。
戈麦斯： 揭幕战脱颖而出，因为那是 NBA 历史上最令人印象深刻、最独特的个人表现之一。我个人很喜欢最后一场对阵森林狼的比赛，那场比赛安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 砍下了 55 分，新秀琼·贝林格 (Joan Beringer) 表现出色，文班亚马也打得很棒，还有一个充满罚球失误和马刺抢到进攻篮板的古怪结局——这种伟大的球队往往能在篮球之神的帮助下赢得的怪异比赛。但如果非要选一个时刻，我会选一个不那么新颖的：文班亚马对阵太阳队的绝杀。马刺多年来第一次锁定季后赛席位，而由他们的超级巨星投进这样一个精彩的球来锁定名额，简直就像写好的剧本一样。
除了战绩，本赛季最大的惊喜是什么？
杜宾斯基： 对我来说，是所谓的缺乏外线投篮最终并没有成为问题。这本身并不是强项，但他们做得足够好，没有拖后腿。赛季开始前在这方面确实有点压力，因为马刺并没有真正签下任何新的外线射手，而且达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)、卡斯尔和哈珀这三名后卫并没有射手的名声，但他们三人的投篮都足以让防守保持警惕。哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 在赛季初也有超级火热的表现（并在过去一个月左右开始找回状态），而朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 已经变成了联盟中最可靠的射手之一。他们还可以做得更好，但这并不是我们都担心的明显弱点。
巴灵顿： 我认为是这支球队的成熟度和心理韧性。这支球队非常年轻，但他们在心理上表现得不像一支年轻球队。这部分归功于教练，也归功于哈里森·巴恩斯、凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 和乔丹·麦克劳克林 (Jordan McLaughlin) 等人的老将领导力，但主要还是由于年轻球员的性格。文班亚马除了是一位天赋异禀的球员外，还是一位令人难以置信的领袖。在他亲切而书卷气的外表下，隐藏着强烈的竞争天性和钢铁般的意志。卡斯尔像我见过的任何球员一样努力。哈珀尽管是个新秀，但打球时有着老将般的冷静。通常情况下，像这样年轻的球队预计会在季后赛早早出局，但如果他们能保持头脑清醒，今年就有机会制造一些动静，而所有迹象都表明他们会这样做。
黄： 斯蒂芬·卡斯尔，毫无疑问。我提过无数次，我没预料到他会有这样的飞跃，考虑到我上赛季对他所有糟糕的看法，我很惊讶自己没被禁止写作。我原以为他会成为像马库斯·斯玛特 (Marcus Smart) 那样的“神经刀”球员，但他已经成长为一名名副其实的全明星级别后卫，是一名准精英级的组织者，现在还是一个效率达到联盟平均水平的得分手。哦，我提到防守了吗？我从来没有对一个球员看走眼到这种程度，我也从来没有因为看走眼而感到如此高兴。
博德桑： 我当时完全不知道把哈珀加入替补席会产生什么效果。显而易见，这孩子有天赋，但这基本上是要求他立即为一群经验丰富的老将掌舵。我尤其不确定他和凯尔登会如何结合，因为凯尔登已经接受了第六人的角色，而哈珀几乎肯定最终会超过他。凯尔登是一个很棒的人，但他有非常特定的打球风格，大家只能希望他们能互补。但不仅哈珀在场时几乎每个替补阵容都有所进步，而且特别是他和凯尔登同时在场的阵容，在进攻和防守上都提升了将近 5 分。这支球队能赢得 60 场比赛（以及文班能够根据需要提前下场休息）的一个重要原因，是因为替补席不仅拒绝丢掉领先优势，而且还扩大了领先优势。替补席的净效率排名联盟第 5，而我原本只希望他们能进前 10。在圣安东尼奥，这往往与冠军旗帜挂钩。
戈麦斯： 每个人都能完美融入自己理想的角色，这种无缝衔接对于这样一支年轻的球队来说有点令人惊讶。米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 功不可没，他似乎是一位出色的更衣室领袖，能够发挥出球员的最大潜能，但球员本身也值得称赞。尤其是年轻的老将们值得表扬。凯尔登在需要拯救一些进攻乏力的替补阵容时表现得很激进，尤其是在赛季初期，但他并没有强求。德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 既有高得分的比赛，也有只出手几次的夜晚，但他总是尝试以任何其他方式做出贡献。福克斯在做球队获胜所需的事情方面最令人印象深刻，他在很长一段时间甚至整场比赛中都转为无球角色，为年轻后卫腾出空间，处于巅峰期的这种地位的球员很少有人会这样做。天赋是推动马刺成功的核心力量，但化学反应紧随其后。
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 best of the Spurs’ triumphant 2025/26 regular season
The best of the Spurs’ triumphant 2025/26 regular season
The Spurs just finished their fourth-best season in franchise history in terms of win percentage. Is this one of the best San Antonio teams ever, or do we need to wait for the playoffs to claim that?
Marilyn Dubinski: We definitely need to see what’s in store for the playoffs before ranking them. Spurs teams with lower records have won championships and will therefore always be highly regarded. Conversely, the best regular season record for the Spurs was 67-15 in 2015-16, but we mainly remember that team for losing in the second round to the Thunder, however controversial it was (Dion Waiters, ugh), not for how great the regular season was. One thing this squad will always be remembered for is one of the best turnarounds in franchise history, and while their 28-game improvement doesn’t beat the 35 games from 1989-90 or 36 from 1997-98, it may have been an even bigger surprise.
Mark Barrington: It’s the best turnaround I’ve ever seen, from a team that’s barely competitive to one of the league’s elites, but to be one of the best San Antonio teams ever, they are going to have to excel in the playoffs. Maybe one of the best regular seasons ever, but for a team that has five championships, the bar is higher than the regular season. If this team wins the championship, this will be the second-best year ever, after 1999, when they won their first trophy. I don’t know if this team is ready, but it seems possible. They don’t have much playoff experience, but I don’t think anything intimidates them.
Bill Huan: We need to see what happens in the playoffs. This team needs to go through the crucible of a postseason before we can make proclamations about where they rank in Spurs history, and we’ve seen elite regular-season teams flame out when things get tough before. Now that I’m done being a Debbie Downer, I feel comfortable saying that this has probably been one of the most fun seasons in team history, given the expectations going in and the turnaround they had compared to last year. Now, I wasn’t even alive when the Spurs won their first championship and I’ve been a fan for only a decade, so feel free to “expose” me, as the kids like to say.
Devon Birdsong: One of the best regular-season teams? Yeah, I think that’s pretty much set in stone at this point. For the latter fourth of the season, I’ve been comparing this year’s squad to the 2014 Spurs, and their Net Rating ended up being almost identical. They even both went 62-20, and if not for the Thunder, they’d have been the #1 seed like the 2014 Spurs were. However, the best overall is always going to be dictated by rings, so the postseason is where they’ll have to earn that accolade. Even if they were to just make the Western Conference Finals, though, that would be enough to make them a top 10 team in franchise history, and that’s no small thing to be able to claim in the history of this franchise. Obviously, we’d all prefer a title. Now *that* would be a fun ranking exercise.
Jeje Gomez: The potential is there. The record speaks for itself and the net rating is impressive. For most franchises, it would be easy to call them one of their best team ever. Unfortunately for this version of the Spurs, they are measured up against championship teams, so the playoffs have to be considered. If they get to the Conference Finals, they would get a spot among the best San Antonio teams ever, but until they achieve some postseason success, they can’t be regarded as one.
There were a lot of highlights and big moments in the regular season. Which was your favorite?
Dubinski: Just off the top of my head, Victor Wembanyama’s triumphant return in the regular season opener was special after overcoming DVT, and the way he made Cooper Flagg look like a deer in headlights was the cherry on top. (Although news flash: he isn’t anymore. He’s going to be special.) They also actually made me kinda care about the Cup with their wins in Los Angeles and against the Thunder in Vegas. Speaking of which, going 4-1 against the Thunder will always be a fun memory. Lastly, who can forget that entire February and-on stretch? That kind of run is something only true championship contenders do.
Barrington: For me, it might be the 25-point comeback to beat the Clippers on March 6, where they overcame a blah start and took over the game late, shutting down Kawhi Leonard and turning a bad night into triumph. It’s a measure of how resilient the team can be that they didn’t give up when they were down by 25 points in the third quarter and kept believing. But the whole season has been special, and I wouldn’t have missed any of it.
Huan: It’s gotta be Wemby’s performance in the season opener. I still watch highlights of that game once a week and I genuinely think it’s one of the most insane one-game highlight packages of any athlete, from any sport, ever. Jacob Tobey’s line about Wemby being “a figment of our basketball imagination” is one of my all-time favorite calls, too, and the best part is, the entire season continued to go uphill from there.
Birdsong: For me, it’s a tie between Wemby’s hyper-efficient 40-point games and Harper and Castle getting white hot from long distance. After struggling with unevenness from beyond the arc, Castle has been shooting 40% for about a month and a half, and Harper has actually been shooting 50% over that same stretch of time. No shock that the Spurs have been a nigh-unsolvable riddle in that time. Meanwhile, Wemby tied the Admiral for most 40-point 10-rebound games in a season (5), and did so while averaging less than 30 minutes a game. There’s just not much like watching him be unstoppable in that way. And several of those games weren’t far from being 40-20 stat lines. The even crazier thing? He scored 38+ points in four other games, coming unbelievably close to almost doubling the number of hyper-efficient 40-point rampages.
Gomez: Opening night stands out because it was one of the most impressive and unique individual performances the NBA has ever seen. I personally loved the last matchup against the Timberwolves, featuring 55 points from Anthony Edwards, a standout performance by rookie Joan Beringer, a great Wemby game and a wacky ending with missed free throws and offensive rebounds that went the Spurs’ way, the type of weird game that great teams tend to win with some help from the basketball gods. But if I have to pick one moment, I’ll be unoriginal and go with Wembanyama’s game-winner against the Suns. The Spurs were a lock to make the playoffs for the first time in years, but to clinch their spot with such a fantastic bucket from their superstar almost felt scripted.
What was the biggest surprise of the season, other than the record?
Dubinski: For me, it was how much an alleged lack of outside shooting ended up not being a problem. It wasn’t a strength, per se, but they were good enough that it didn’t hold them back. There was a little stress in that department coming in, considering the Spurs didn’t really sign any new outside shooters and the guard trio of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper didn’t have a reputation as shooters, but all three of them shot well enough to keep defenses honest. Harrison Barnes also had his super hot start to the season (and started regaining his form in the last month or so), and Julian Champagnie has turned into one of the most reliable shooters in the league. They could still be better, but it wasn’t the glaring weakness we all feared it would be.
Barrington: I think it’s the maturity and emotional resilience of the team. The team is really young, but they don’t play like a young team mentally. Some of it is coaching, and also the veteran leadership of guys like Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson, and Jordan McLaughlin, but it’s mostly due to the character of the young players. Victor Wembanyama is an incredible leader, on top of being an insanely talented player. Behind that affable and nerdy exterior lurks an intense competitive nature and steely resolve. Stephon Castle works as hard as any player I’ve seen. Dylan Harper plays with the calmness of a veteran, despite being a rookie. Normally, a team this young would be expected to be bounced early in the playoffs, but they have a chance to make some noise this year if they keep their heads about them, and every indication is that they will.
Huan: Steph Castle, no question. I’ve mentioned countless times that I did not expect this leap from him, and I’m surprised I wasn’t banned from writing, given all the horrendous takes I had about him last season. I thought that he would become a trick-or-treat type player like Marcus Smart but he has developed into a legitimate All-Star calibre guard who’s a borderline elite playmaker and now a decent scorer on league-average efficiency. Oh, and did I mention the defense? I’ve never been this wrong about a player ever, and I’ve never been happier about being wrong, either.
Birdsong: I had no idea how adding Harper to the bench was going to play out. It was pretty obvious the kid had talent, but it was basically asking him to instantly run the show for a group of savvy vets. I especially wasn’t sure how he and Keldon might combine, with Keldon having accepted a role as 6th man, and Harper almost certain to pass him up eventually. Keldon’s a lovely human, but he has a very specific play style, and all anyone could do was hope that they’d complement each other. But not only was pretty much every bench lineup improved with Harper on the court, lineups with him and Keldon specifically are almost five points better on both offense and defense. A big part of why this team won 60 games (and why Wemby was able to dip out early as needed) was because the bench not only refused to relinquish the lead, but also built on it. The bench finished the year 5th in the league for net rating, and I was just hoping for them to be in the top 10. In San Antonio, that tends to align with banners.
Gomez: The seamlessness with which everyone slotted perfectly into their ideal roles was a little surprising for such a young team. Mitch Johnson deserves credit for that, as he seems to be a great locker room leader who can get the best out of his personnel, but the players themselves also need to be commended. The young veterans in particular deserve their flowers. Keldon Johnson was aggressive when he needed to save some offensively-challenged bench lineups, especially early in the season, but he didn’t force things. Devin Vassell had big scoring games and nights in which he took only a handful of shots, but always tried to contribute in any other way he could. De’Aaron Fox was the most impressive in terms of just doing what the team needed to win by moving to an off-ball role for long stretches and even entire games to make room for the young guards, something not a lot of players of his stature would have done in their prime. Raw talent is the main force driving the Spurs’ success, but chemistry is a close second.
By Jeje Gomez, via Pounding The Rock