By J.R. Wilco | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-04-18 22:30:00
随着马刺将在接下来的两周内对阵波特兰开拓者，我觉得是时候祭出我最喜欢的连载系列之一——《与敌共舞》(Fraternizing with the Enemy) 了。因此，我联系了优秀网站 Blazers Edge 的掌门人戴夫·德卡德 (Dave Deckard)，通过一些友好的调侃和分析，来了解近况并为即将到来的系列赛做准备。
J.R.
我的朋友！我们太久没见了，这全怪我。这可不是我在装大方，而是我深知这确实是我的错。但我该如何开口呢？或者我该问，我们该如何重新开始？毕竟，自 2021年1月 以来，我们还没做过这种交流。这让我感到非常怀念。也许最简单的推进方式是免去寒暄，但我真的很享受这种友好的氛围。这是我们 15 年交流历程中的标志性特征之一。
我看到一项统计，在我们两队此前四次在季后赛相遇的经历中，有三次胜者最终打进了总决赛。1990年，你们赢了，然后输给了“坏孩子军团”底特律活塞；而在1999年和2014年，马刺在战胜你们后都赢得了总冠军。这让这轮系列赛显得举足轻重，至少不像是一场普通的季后赛首轮对决。
我得承认，当我看到德尼·阿夫迪亚 (Deni Avdija) 打球时，我能看到我最喜欢的“GDP”时代球员马努·吉诺比利 (Manu Ginobili) 的影子：一个身材高大、技术全面的侧翼，既能得分也能组织，让对手很难将其挡在禁区之外，而且还能像变魔术一样制造犯规。我当时在看对阵菲尼克斯太阳的附加赛，一名太阳球员不幸用手掠过了阿夫迪亚的头发，德尼身体颤抖的方式用“裁判语言”传达了“发生了严重身体接触”的信息，那反应速度简直超乎寻常。令人印象深刻。
那么，你认为阿夫迪亚会如何攻击圣安东尼奥？
Dave
哟，这不是“马刺通”吗！好久不见！你今天过得怎么样？是不是走在路边绊了一跤，结果掉进了一堆金币里？你是不是在用中奖的强力球彩票擤鼻子？你是不是雇了一只喝醉的猴子乱敲键盘，结果它意外破解了比特币区块链？作为圣安东尼奥的球迷，生活到底有多滋润？
J.R.
我想如果文班是金币，卡斯尔是强力球彩票，那么哈珀 (Harper) 就是那个被破解的区块链。虽然这并不完全等同于在巅峰期把一位时代级巨星交易到洛杉矶，然后拿到状元签选下弗拉格 (Flagg)，但我能理解圣安东尼奥以外的人为什么会感到沮丧。作为波特兰球迷，生活过得如何？
Dave
平淡无奇。我的意思是，打进季后赛固然不错，但球队仍然缺乏方向，还在等待一位我们一无所知的新老板确定优先事项。我们现在的处境是，如果能赢马刺两场，就会被视为成功。这总比在乐透区混日子强（因为没人会因为乒乓球的运气就让我们直接上到三垒半），但从绝对意义上讲，这并不是一个理想的位置。
所以情况是这样的。关于这轮系列赛，你想说什么都行。说圣安东尼奥是更好的球队，这显而易见，我完全同意。但我再也不想听到任何关于“马刺优越论”的话了。我们现在面对的显然不是一支因为你们做出了更好的决策、聘请了正确的教练或拥有某种神秘文化而取得 60 胜的西部二号种子。当你们拿不到高顺位选秀权时，你们也和大家一样挣扎。我们即将被你们碾压，是因为你们接连选中了文班和哈珀……这是我多年前就建议 NBA 应该立法禁止的事情。
我不介意你们拥有维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)！祝你们玩得开心！但迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 让我破防了。别指望我从今往后会为发生在你们身上的任何好事鼓掌，包括夺冠。这是预制好的成功，开罐即食。除此之外的任何说辞，都像是在看着一场巨大的雷阵雨席卷而过，然后你打开自家的洒水器，声称是你浇灌了草坪。接着还说你们比那些沙漠居民更擅长园艺。
别担心，四年后大家就会忘掉这些，再次称赞你们的英明。但我会像特洛伊的卡桑德拉 (Cassandra of Troy) 那样，一遍又一遍地重复这个预言，直到它深入人心。你们简直是这个联盟运作失灵的典型案例。我并不嫉妒你们因此而举行的庆祝活动，换成我也会庆祝！但作为一个旁观者，以及未来两周的对手，我对这一切的感觉非常复杂。
话虽如此，阿夫迪亚喜欢用右手冲击中路。他速度极快，整个赛季都表现出色，能得分也能造犯规，但大家都知道他的招数。你觉得文班在这轮系列赛中的盖帽总数盘口应该是 100 万个还是 200 万个？
J.R.
我想你很难找到任何理智的马刺球迷，在球队经历了如此程度、如此长时间的摆烂后，还会去争辩“圣安东尼奥模式”的内在正确性。在我看来，“马刺优越论”这艘好船不仅起航了，还撞上了一连串冰岛，沉入了海底，并在地壳上撞出了个大洞。
你可以提出这样一个观点——而且我知道这个观点非常有说服力——即在伦纳德强行离开之前，马刺一直是唯一一支始终以正确方式进行球队建设的球队。当时的标语是“自给自足，而非金钱堆砌 (Built Not Bought)”，我敢肯定外面还有不少纹着这句话的纹身。但既然球队已经通过这种方式完成了重建，这个论点就不再成立了。
不，这支马刺队的组建过程确实没什么励志色彩，但这并不意味着你不会听到人们站在道德制高点上吹嘘这支球队的打法。现在有一个关于“道德篮球 (Ethical Basketball)”的话题被反复提及，用来指责那些骗犯规的球队和球员。所以这可能会让一些人感到恼火，但我认为这种事情更多是一个程度问题，而不是非黑即白的二元对立。每个人在某种程度上都会夸大身体接触，唯一的问题是做了多少以及是否合理，而这种主观话题完全取决于观察者的眼光。
至于文班的盖帽，我知道波特兰喜欢在篮下进行大量投篮，我也知道马刺的防守在维克托能够通过切换到“防守”离三秒区最近的对手来留在禁区时效果最好。所以，除非开拓者能制定出一种极端的战术，经常诱使他远离篮筐，否则文班会尽可能地驻守在篮下。不过，这是否意味着他能拿到一堆盖帽还是个未知数，因为很多时候他很难扇到球，原因仅仅是球员们决定不去挑战他。
但这并不意味着没有办法在防守端拉开马刺的空间。季后赛中，常规赛的趋势可能会消失，因为犯规变得难以获得。当教练们反复面对同一支球队时，他们会拿出真本事，而蒂亚戈·斯普利特 (Tiago Splitter) 在马刺体系中待了足够长的时间，对它了如指掌。你认为波特兰会尝试在哪些方面针对这支年轻的圣安东尼奥球队创造优势？
Dave
波特兰可能会投出海量的三分球。这已经在他们的计划之中了（指尝试次数，而非命中率）。三分球是改变比赛走势的利器。开拓者需要改变比赛走势，因为如果比赛按部就班地进行，马刺就会赢。
让我们现实点吧。没有什么优势是可以创造的。波特兰依赖的一切，马刺都有应对方案。而马刺在防守端的短板，开拓者的阵容也无法利用。波特兰字面上没有任何优势。唯一的办法就是咬住比分，保持在两三个球的差距内，然后争取一个火热的收尾。开拓者通常擅长此道，除非在这个过程中他们必须在关键时刻发边线球。那时候他们就像一个含着奶嘴的巨大疯狂乌贼一样烂。
一个对比鲜明的领域是，马刺很少失误，也很少迫使对手失误，而疯狂的开拓者则有很多失误。如果他们能让圣安东尼奥打得混乱起来，那对他们是有利的，即使他们造成的失误和自己丢掉的一样多。
进攻篮板可能是另一个重要的战场数据。马刺很擅长此道，而开拓者则非常出色。波特兰不能让圣安东尼奥抢走他们的进攻篮板，甚至不能让对方在篮板数上与自己持平。圣安东尼奥出色的后场篮板保护可能是让这轮系列赛变得轻松的关键因素。
你怎么看？
J.R.
如果说我有什么顾虑，那就是波特兰在常规赛中因伤病很少使用，但在菲尼克斯的附加赛末尾使用的那套阵容：阿夫迪亚、霍勒迪、夏普、格兰特和卡马拉。（感谢 杰森·蒂姆夫 (Jason Timpf) 的提醒。）这套阵容是典型的“小样本奇迹”，因为他们在赛季中总共只打了 96 分钟，但他们在关键时刻完全打爆了太阳，并且本赛季的进攻效率高达 149。
这是一套强悍的小球阵容（带有勇士“汉普顿五虎”的影子），身体对抗强，防守覆盖面广。当圣安东尼奥控球时，他们会无限换防，试图让马刺陷入纯单打模式，而那些成功对抗马刺的球队通常都能做到这一点。在进攻端，他们会拉开空间，并试图通过战术让文班在三分线外防守像图马尼·卡马拉 (Toumani Camara) 这样的球员，使他难以回到篮下封盖突破者。
这可能是一个冷门招数，而且需要波特兰一直咬住比分，才能让这套阵容在收官阶段发挥作用。但这五个人同时在场时，有机会对马刺复制他们对太阳所做的事情，并迫使圣安东尼奥去做他们最不愿做的事：让文班、福克斯或卡斯尔去 1 对 1 硬解顶级防守者以确保胜利。
我们将在周日晚上看到实战效果。迫不及待想看比赛，然后赛后再和你讨论。
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 Trail Blazers small ball unit that could give the Spurs fits
The Trail Blazers small ball unit that could give the Spurs fits
With the Spurs facing the Portland Trail Blazers for the next week or two, I felt it was time to dust off one of my favorite running series, Fraternizing with the Enemy. So I reached out to Dave Deckard, head honcho of the excellent site Blazers Edge, to catch up and prepare for the upcoming series with some good-natured banter and analysis.
J.R.
My friend! It’s been too long, and I take all of the blame. Not because I’m being magnanimous, but because I know it’s all my fault. But how shall I begin? I guess it would be better to ask how we should recommence? After all, it’s been since January of 2021 that we’ve done one of these. Makes me feel a more than a little bit nostalgic. Perhaps the simplest way forward is to dispense with the pleasantries, but I really do enjoy being pleasant. It’s been one of the hallmarks of our 15 years of conversing with each other.
I saw a stat that in three of the four previous times our two teams have met in the playoffs, the winner went on to The Finals. In 1990, your team won and then went down to the Bad Boy Pistons, and in 1999 and 2014, the Spurs went on to win it all after surviving your team. It makes this series feel consequential, or at least less like a first round matchup.
I’ll admit that when I watch Deni Avdija play, I see shades of my favorite player from the Big Three era, Manu Ginobili: a versatile wing with size who can score as well as create, is impossible to keep out of the paint, and who draw fouls as if by magic. I was watching the play-in game against Phoenix and one of the Suns had the misfortune to graze Avdija’s hair with his hand and Deni shivered his body in a way that communicated “serious contact has occurred” in ref-speak at a speed that was practically preternatural. Highly impressive.
So, how do you see Avdija attacking San Antonio?
Dave
Well, well! If it isn’t the Spurs Guy! Long time! How was your day? Did you trip over a curb and fall into a pile of gold doubloons? Are you blowing your nose with the winning Powerball ticket? Did you hire a drunk monkey to smash a computer keyboard only to watch him accidentally hack the Bitcoin blockchain? How IS life as a San Antonio fan?
J.R.
I guess if Wemby is doubloons and Castle is a Powerball ticket then Harper is the blockchain hack. It’s not exactly trading a generational superstar in his prime to L.A. and getting the top pick to draft Flagg, but I could see how it could be frustrating to some outside of San Antonio. How is life as a Portland fan?
Dave
Middling. I mean, making the playoffs is nice, but the team is still directionless and waiting to see the priorities of a new owner we know nothing about. We’re at the point where two wins versus the Spurs would be seen as success. That’s better than trolling the lottery (since nobody walks and balks us to third-and-a-half base courtesy of repeated ping pong ball fortunes) but it’s not a great spot in absolute terms.
So here’s the thing. Say what you want about and during the series. Call San Antonio a better team. That’s obvious. I agree wholeheartedly. But I don’t ever want to hear anything about Spurs Exceptionalism again. We are clearly not facing a 60-win, second seeded team because you made better decisions, hired the right coach, or have some mystical culture. When you weren’t getting high picks you struggled just like everyone else. We are going to get mown under by you because you drafted Wemby and Harper in succession…something I suggested the NBA enact rules against YEARS ago
I don’t mind that you have Wembanyama! Enjoy! But Dylan broke me. Do not expect me to applaud anything that happens to you, including championships, from here on out. This is prefabricated success, right out of a jar. Anything else is watching a huge thunderstorm roll through, then turning on your sprinkler and claiming YOU watered the lawn. And then saying you’re way better gardeners than those desert dwellers.
Don’t worry, in four years everyone will have forgotten this and calling you brilliant AGAIN. But I’m going to Cassandra of Troy this into the ground. You’re literally an example of one of the ways this league is broken. I don’t begrudge you the celebrations you’ll have because of it. I’d celebrate too! But as an onlooker normally and an opponent for the next two weeks, I have very mixed feelings about this whole thing.
That said, Deni Avdija loves to drive the middle with his right hand. He’s quick as anything and has succeeded all season, scoring and drawing fouls, but everybody knows what he does. Do you suppose the over/under on Wemby blocks in this series is one million or two million?
J.R.
I would expect you to have to hunt far and wide to be able to find any reasonable Spurs fans who would argue for the inherent rightness of the San Antonio Way after the team has tanked to the extent they tanked for as long as they tanked. In my mind, the good ship Spurs Exceptionalism has not only sailed, it hit a series of icebergs, plummeted to the bottom of the sea and punched a hole through the crust.
You could make the case, and I know I’ve heard it made pretty convincingly, that up until Leonard forced his way out of town, the Spurs were the one franchise who had done the team building thing the right way all along. The bumper sticker was “Built Not Bought” and I’m pretty sure there are a number of tattoos out there as well. But there’s no argument remaining in that direction now that the team has reloaded the way that they have.
No, there wasn’t anything inspirational about how this Spurs team came together, but that doesn’t mean you won’t hear people getting on their soap boxes to crow about how the team plays. There’s the subject of Ethical Basketball that’s been bandied about and harped upon to call out teams and players who hunt foul calls. So that might end up chafing some people a bit, but I think that kind of thing is more of a spectrum than anything like a binary, black and white kind of deal. Everybody sells contact to some extent. The only question is how much it’s done and whether it’s justified, which is just the kind of subjective topic that exists solely in the eye of the beholder.
As to Wemby’s blocks, I know Portland likes to take a ton of shots around the basket, and I know that the Spurs defense is at its best when Victor can stay in the paint by switching to “guarding” whichever opponent is the closest to lane. So unless the Blazers can develop an extreme tactic that regularly tempts him away from protecting the rim, Wemby will camp out by the basket as much as he can. Whether that means he’s able to get a bunch of blocks is an open question though, because oftentimes he finds it difficult to swat any shots because guys just decide not to test him.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to stretch the Spurs on defense. The postseason is where regular season trends can vanish as fouls become hard to come by. Coaches can bring some serious heat when they see the same team over and over again, and Tiago Splitter lived in the Spurs system long enough to know it inside and out. Where do you see Portland trying to create an advantage against this young San Antonio team?
Dave
Portland will probably shoot a metric ton of threes. That’s in their portfolio already (the attempts, not the makes). Three-pointers are game-benders. The Blazers need these games to be bent because San Antonio wins if they go straight as planned.
Let’s get real. There are no advantages to be created. Everything Portland relies on, the Spurs have a counter for. What the Spurs don’t do well on defense the Blazers aren’t built to take advantage of. There’s literally no edge for Portland. There’s only keep it close, within a couple possessions, and go for the hot ending. The Blazers are usually good at that, unless in the process they have to inbounds the ball in a crucial situation. Then they suck like a giant, rabid squid with a pacifier.
One area of contrast is that the Spurs commit and force few turnovers, the frantic Blazers many. If they can get San Antonio playing messy, that’s to their advantage even if they lose as many TO’s as they force.
Offensive rebounding could be another important battleground stat. The Spurs are very good at it, the Blazers great. Portland can’t let San Antonio take away their offensive boards or even match them rebound for rebound. San Antonio’s great defensive rebounding could be the factor that makes this series easy for them.
What’s your read?
J.R.
If I have a concern, it’s about the lineup Portland hardly used in the regular season because of injuries, but went to at the end of the play-in game in Phoenix: Avdija, Holiday, Sharpe, Grant and Camara. (h/t to Jason Timpf for the heads up.) This lineup is the essence of small sample size theatre because it only logged 96 minutes total during the season, but they absolutely had Phoenix for lunch down the stretch, and they tallied a 149 offensive rating this season.
It’s a stout, smallball unit (with shades of the Warriors Hamptons five) with lots of physicality and tons of defensive range. When San Antonio has the ball, they’d switch everything and try to turn the Spurs into a iso-only attack, which is what the teams that succeed against San Antonio have been able to do. On offense, they’d spread the floor and try to scheme Wemby into guarding someone like Camara above the break to make it difficult for him to recover to the basket to deny drivers.
It might be a longshot, and it would require Portland to keep it close for this unit to me in a position to close the game, but these five on the court together have a shot at doing to the Spurs what they did to the Suns and forcing San Antonio to do what they’d prefer not to have to: make Wemby, Fox or Castle to go 1×1 against excellent defenders in order to secure the win.
We’ll see what it looks like for real on Sunday evening. Can’t wait to watch and then discuss with you afterwards.
By J.R. Wilco, via Pounding The Rock