By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-04-18 15:12:26
2026年3月10日，星期二，在圣安东尼奥霜银中心球馆 (Frost Bank Center)，圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) (4) 和前锋维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) (1) 在以 125-116 战胜波士顿凯尔特人队后，在球迷的欢呼声中走向更衣室。
当赛季结束时，我们将有充足的时间去审视，去讲逻辑，去心怀感激。
当赛季结束时，马刺可以提醒自己，他们的进度已经大大提前，没有人预料到他们已经实现了如此巨大的飞跃，季后赛中发生的任何事情都无法抹灭这一切。
当赛季结束时，他们可以理性地思考这一切。
但在那之前呢？
保持“不理智”也并无大碍。
相信马刺能用五场比赛击溃实力悬殊的波特兰开拓者，用六场比赛跑赢日渐老迈的丹佛掘金，然后在七场大战中证明常规赛对俄克拉荷马城雷霆的压制并非侥幸，这并无大碍。
哪怕半个多世纪的 NBA 历史都在暗示，对于这样一支球队，如此高的期望注定会以令人心碎的失望告终，但计划着这场狂欢一直持续到六月下旬的河滨夺冠游行，也并无大碍。
这没关系。
要么捧回总冠军奖杯，要么迎接季后赛那令人难以慰藉的心碎。毕竟，圣安东尼奥已经太久没有体会过这两者中的任何一种了。
当然，一个冷静、公正、客观的观察者现在应该敦促马刺及其球迷保持谨慎。
我本该警告你们，开拓者顶级的三分防守让他们在每场比赛中都保有悬念，这意味着几次运气不佳就可能扭转系列赛的局势。
我本该提醒你们，尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokic) 或安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 正在第二轮等着你们。这两位超级巨星都在那个舞台上积累了丰富的经验，而他们所在的球队本赛季也曾让马刺头疼不已。
我本该指出，即使在五次交手中赢了俄克拉荷马城四次，马刺在潜在的分区决赛对决中仍将是巨大的下风方，对手是卫冕冠军——就像过去五十年的每一支冠军球队一样，他们在夺冠前都必须经历属于自己的季后赛失败。
我还本该提到，如果你对马刺这个季后赛不抱太大期望，你可能就不会失望。但还是把这种悲观的智慧留在 20 世纪 90 年代，和琴酒花朵 (Gin Blossoms) 乐队待在一起吧。
现在是节日庆典 (Fiesta) 期间。这意味着季后赛才刚刚开始。
除了头上挨几个 cascarónes（彩蛋壳），还有什么好怕的呢？
如果我们非要挖掘一件 20 世纪末的哲学遗物，那不妨用安迪·杜弗伦 (Andy Dufresne) 传达给狱友埃利斯·雷丁 (Ellis Redding) 的那句话。那句话说的是，尽管我们当中的愤世嫉俗者可能坚持己见，但希望是一件好事。也许是世间最美好的事。
在经历了长达六年的“肖申克”式煎熬后，马刺终于穿过了隧道，走出了大门。即便赔率显示终究会有人追上他们，为什么不继续相信他们能一路走到底呢？
文班亚马就是这么想的。达龙·福克斯、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle)、米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson)、布莱恩·莱特 (Brian Wright) 和 R.C. 布福德 (R.C. Buford) 也是这么想的。六个月前，从更衣室到管理层包厢，每个人都在试图对本赛季的成功定义保持务实。
但现在，马刺已经冲破了一个又一个所谓的上限，并以一种看起来比任何人都更有天赋、阵容深度更厚、表现更沉稳的姿态进入季后赛？
球队大楼里的任何人都不会对此设定限制。没有人会给希望封顶。
如果你年纪够大，经历过这些，你就会明白这意味着什么。你会记得，当你拥有一支你认为足以夺冠的球队时——就像马刺在 1995 年、2001 年、2004 年、2006 年和 2013 年那样——如果最终没能夺冠，那是毁灭性的。
但这并不意味着你现在必须保持逻辑。
现在不是审视的时候。现在不是静静欣赏目前所取得的进步的时候。现在不是让马刺意识到无论如何，他们本赛季已经取得了超出所有人预期的成就的时候。
所有这些都可以等到结束时再说。如果认为它不会结束是不理智的呢？
马刺不妨尽可能久地保持这种“不理智”。
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：Why the Spurs can push into playoffs with hope, save logic for later
Why the Spurs can push into playoffs with hope, save logic for later
San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox (4) and forward Victor Wembanyama (1) walk to the locker room as fans cheer them on following a 125-116 victory over the Boston Celtics at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Tuesday, March 10, 2026.
When it ends, there will be ample time for perspective. And for logic. And for gratitude.
When it ends, the Spurs can remind themselves how far ahead of schedule they are, and how nobody anticipated the giant leap they already made, and how nothing that happens during these playoffs can take any of that away from them.
When it ends, they can think about all of this rationally.
But between now and then?
There’s no harm in staying unreasonable.
There’s no harm in believing the Spurs will overwhelm the outmatched Portland Trail Blazers in five, run past the aging Denver Nuggets in six, then prove in seven games that their regular-season mastery of the Oklahoma City Thunder was no fluke.
There’s no harm in planning on this to last all the way through a late-June river parade, even if more than a half-century of NBA history suggests expectations like that, for a team like this, are guaranteed to end in crushing disappointment.
That’s OK.
Bring on a championship, or bring on inconsolable postseason heartbreak. After all, it’s been far too long since San Antonio has experienced either one.
Of course, what a cold, impartial, unbiased observer is supposed to be urging the Spurs and their fans to practice right now is caution.
I’m supposed to be warning you about how the Blazers’ elite 3-point defense keeps them in every game, which means that a couple of bad breaks can flip a series.
I’m supposed to be reminding you that either Nikola Jokic or Anthony Edwards is waiting in the second round, a stage on which both of those superstars have accumulated abundant experience, on teams that gave the Spurs headaches this season.
I’m supposed to be pointing out that even after beating Oklahoma City in four out of five meetings, the Spurs still would enter a potential conference finals matchup as massive underdogs to the defending champs, who like every other title team of the past five decades had to endure their own playoff failure before they won it all.
And I’m supposed to be noting that if you don’t expect too much from the Spurs this postseason, you might not be let down. But leave that pessimistic wisdom back in the 1990s with the Gin Blossoms.
It’s Fiesta. That means the playoffs are just getting started.
Aside from getting a couple of cascarónes upside the head, what is there to fear, anyway?
If we must dig up a philosophical relic from the late 20th century, it might as well be the one a prisoner named Andy Dufresne imparted to fellow inmate Ellis Redding. The one about how, despite what the cynical among us might insist, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things.
After six long years in their version of Shawshank, the Spurs made it through the tunnel and beyond the gates. Even if the odds say someone’s going to catch them eventually, why not keep thinking they can make it all the way?
That’s what Victor Wembanyama believes. That’s what De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Mitch Johnson, Brian Wright, and R.C. Buford believe, too. There was a time, six months ago, when everyone from the locker room to the executive box was trying to be realistic about what success would look like this season.
But now that the Spurs have smashed through one alleged ceiling after another, and head into the playoffs looking as talented and as deep and as poised as anyone?
Nobody in the building is setting limitations on anything. Nobody’s putting a cap on hope.
If you’re old enough to have been through this before, you remember what this means. You remember that when you have a team that you believe is good enough to win it all, like the Spurs had in 1995 and in 2001 and in 2004 and in 2006 and in 2013, when it doesn’t happen, it’s devastating.
But that doesn’t mean you have to be logical now.
Now is not the time for perspective. Now is not the time for quiet appreciation of the progress made so far. Now is not the time for the Spurs to realize that, no matter what, they’ve already accomplished more than anyone expected this season.
All of that can wait for when it ends. And if it’s unreasonable to think it won’t?
The Spurs might as well stay unreasonable as long as they can.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News