By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-04-23 15:27:13
2026年4月21日，周二，在圣安东尼奥弗罗斯特银行中心举行的NBA季后赛首轮第二场比赛中，圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋卡特·布莱恩特 (11) 在对阵波特兰开拓者队的比赛中扣篮后挂在篮网上。
俄勒冈州波特兰——卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 伸出右手，想要拉队友一把。而倒在地上有些失神的维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 还没准备好接受这份好意。
不过，季后赛才刚刚开始。
这个年轻人还有时间去“拉”他一把。
这并非首选方案。如果马刺队能如愿以偿，他们绝不希望一个在大学期间打了一年替补的20岁新秀，能对球队这十年来的首个季后赛系列赛产生如此大的影响力。
但无论准备好与否，布莱恩特现在都举足轻重。他也已经意识到了这份责任的分量。
“如果你上场时没准备好全力出击，”布莱恩特说，“那你就会陷入大麻烦。”
在这轮总比分1-1平、周五即将迎来对阵开拓者队第三场较量的首轮系列赛中，这位马刺队面容稚嫩的前锋目前吃到的“重拳”比他挥出的还要多。布莱恩特在首战中出场4分钟领到3次犯规；周二的第二场他打了12分钟，表现更有成效，但也付出了代价。
当他在场上时——通常是在小球阵容中担任名义上的内线——马刺队净负13分。
而那场比赛他们最终只输了3分。
不过，失利并不能归咎于布莱恩特。首发球员达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 和朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 的正负值也差不多，而且在比赛末尾多次进攻陷入停滞时，布莱恩特正坐在场边观战。
但由于文班亚马不太可能在第三场比赛前通过脑震荡保护协议，每个人都需要承担更多责任。这其中就包括这位身高6英尺6英寸的新兵，就在四个月前，他还险些因为那些“新秀错误”而愁掉头发。
在去年12月一段令人费解的时期，这位弹跳惊人的布莱恩特多次扣篮不中，以至于队友们威胁说，如果他再扣飞两个，就要剃光他的头。他称之为良性的同侪压力。
那么现在，他凭什么相信自己能分担格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 曾经极不情愿交给新秀的重任呢？
“我的队友们给了我力量，”布莱恩特说。
当然，如果这些队友也能给自己加把劲，那就更有帮助了。
如果文班亚马继续缺阵，马刺队需要福克斯的表现比周二第四节好得多。他们需要斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 重新调整他的突破方式——有些突破在常规赛能博得犯规，但在季后赛却没能赢得哨声。他们也需要前NBA冠军成员哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 及时打出一场经典的季后赛表现。
但即便做到了这些，马刺队还需要确保在卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 下场休息的时间里，场上局面不至于崩溃。文班亚马的替补在第二场比赛的攻防两端都表现不错，但由于科内特被提入首发，替补席便留下了空缺。
在周二的下半场，马刺队教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 选择用小球阵容来填补这个空缺——由布莱恩特出任中锋——这套阵容在常规赛期间偶尔能收到奇效。
这在周五也将是一个选择。
“我们教练组得坐下来，从全局出发认真思考这场比赛，”约翰逊说，“我们是靠这套阵容打通全场，还是需要派上其他人？”
如果说对小球策略的奏效抱有乐观态度，部分原因在于球队对布莱恩特的信心。他在防守端拼尽全力，不会让自己被开拓者队的多诺万·克林根 (Donovan Clingan) 和罗伯特·威廉姆斯 (Robert Williams) 等大个子球员欺负。在大场面面前，他毫无惧色。而当他作为快攻反击的终结者或拉开空间的底角三分射手时，他会给对手制造各种对位难题。
布莱恩特的另一个优势？他可能完全意识不到失败的威胁。
去年12月，在一场他莫名其妙地两次扣篮砸在篮筐后沿弹出的比赛后，他拉住当地专栏作家，坚称自己毫不怀疑自己会成为“世界上最好的球员之一”。
为什么他确信自己在进步？因为即便扣篮不中，他在场上的跑位也是正确的。无论是否完成了最后简单的终结动作，他知道自己该出现在什么位置。
“在我看来，这就是成长，”布莱恩特当时说道，“你必须学会欣赏这一点。总有一天，这会让成功的滋味变得更加甜美。”
没人能保证“那一天”会在本周到来。在马刺队的辉煌时期，波波维奇之所以如此不愿依赖新人的季后赛贡献是有原因的。尽管他很喜欢托尼·帕克 (Tony Parker)、乔治·希尔 (George Hill) 和科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard) 等新秀，但只要他们表现出还没准备好，波波维奇就会迅速将他们换下。
但现在是不同的时代，也是一支不同的球队。这支球队中几乎没有人的季后赛经验比布莱恩特和同级新秀迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 更多。
哈珀已经坐稳了约翰逊的轮换阵容。周五晚上，布莱恩特将获得另一个机会来证明自己也应该如此。
而当文班亚马等待队友拉他一把时？
布莱恩特依然伸着手，迫不及待地想要效劳。
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：How Carter Bryant can pick up Victor Wembanyama and swing a series
How Carter Bryant can pick up Victor Wembanyama and swing a series
San Antonio Spurs forward Carter Bryant (11) hangs onto the net after dunking on the Portland Trail Blazers during the first half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoff series at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Carter Bryant extended his right arm, offering a helping hand. Victor Wembanyama, dazed on the floor, was not yet ready to accept it.
The postseason is young, though.
The kid still has time to pick him up.
This wasn’t Plan A. If the Spurs had their druthers, a 20-year-old rookie who came off the bench during his one year in college would hold no sway over their first playoff series of the decade.
But ready or not, Bryant holds sway now. And he’s learned something already about that responsibility.
“If you go in there not ready to throw haymakers,” Bryant said, “you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”
So far in a first-round series tied 1-1 heading into Friday’s Game 3 against the Trail Blazers, the Spurs’ baby-faced forward has absorbed more haymakers than he’s landed. Bryant’s four minutes in the opener netted him three fouls, and his 12 minutes on Tuesday were more productive, but at a cost.
While he was on the floor, often as the nominal big man in a small lineup, the Spurs were outscored by 13 points.
In a game they lost by three.
The loss wasn’t Bryant’s fault, though. Starters De’Aaron Fox and Julian Champagnie posted similar plus-minus numbers, and the multiple offensive possessions that disintegrated down the stretch came while Bryant was watching from the sideline.
But with Wembanyama unlikely to be cleared from concussion protocol before Game 3, more is going to be asked of everybody. That includes the 6-foot-6 neophyte who a mere four months ago was in danger of losing his hair to, well, rookie mistakes.
During a particularly perplexing December stretch, the high-flying Bryant misfired on so many dunk attempts that his teammates threatened to shave his head if he missed two more. He called that the good kind of peer pressure.
And now, as he looks for the biggest reason to believe he can handle a share of the burden Gregg Popovich used to be loath to assign to rookies?
“My teammates are empowering,” Bryant said.
It would be helpful, of course, if those teammates empowered themselves, too.
If Wembanyama stays sidelined, the Spurs need Fox to be a lot better than he was in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. They need Stephon Castle to recalibrate his approach to some of the drives that drew fouls in the regular season but haven’t generated whistles in the playoffs. They could use one well-timed vintage playoff performance from former NBA champion Harrison Barnes.
But even if they get all of that, the Spurs also need their non-Luke Kornet minutes to not be a liability. Wembanyama’s backup acquitted himself nicely at both ends of the floor in Game 2, but with Kornet playing alongside the starters, it left a hole with the reserves.
In the second half Tuesday, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson chose to fill that hole with the small-ball lineup — featuring Bryant at center — that had been successful in occasional stretches during the regular season.
That will be an option Friday, too.
“We’ll have to kind of sit down as a staff and really think about the game holistically,” Johnson said. “Can we get through a game doing that, or do we need to play somebody else?”
If there’s optimism about the small-ball approach working, it’s in part because of the franchise’s belief in Bryant. He works his tail off on defense. He won’t let himself get bullied by bigger players, like the Blazers’ Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams. He doesn’t look intimidated by the moment. And when he gets going as a fast-break rim-runner or as a floor-spacing 3-point shooter, he creates all sorts of matchup problems for opponents.
The other thing Bryant has going for him? He might be completely oblivious to the threat of failure.
In December, after a game in which he inexplicably clanged two dunks off the back of the rim, he pulled the local columnist aside and swore he still had no doubt he would become “one of the best players in the world.”
Why was he sure he was making progress? Well, on those missed dunks, he was running the floor in the proper lanes. Whether or not he finished the easy part of the play, he knew where he was supposed to be.
“In my head, that’s growth,” Bryant said then. “It’s something you have to appreciate. It’s going to make it so much sweeter someday.”
There’s no guarantee “someday” will come this week. In the Spurs’ glory days, there was a reason Popovich was so reluctant to rely on playoff contributions from any newcomers. As much as he liked rookies from Tony Parker to George Hill to Kawhi Leonard, Popovich was quick to yank them the moment they showed they might not be ready.
But this is a different era, and a different team. Few players on this roster have more playoff experience than Bryant and fellow rookie Dylan Harper do.
Harper already is entrenched in Johnson’s rotation. Friday night, Bryant will get another chance to prove he should be, too.
And while Wembanyama waits for a teammate to pick him up?
Bryant, with his hand still extended, can’t wait to oblige.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News