By J.R. Wilco | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-05-04 13:37:35
距离马刺在2026年NBA季后赛首轮击败波特兰开拓者已经过去了七天，现在，比赛日终于再次降临。次轮，马刺将面对明尼苏达森林狼。森林狼的高度在常规赛给马刺制造了不少麻烦（首轮对阵尼古拉·约基奇时也是如此），但他们目前也面临着健康和进攻产出的疑问——唐特·迪文琴佐 (Donte DiVincenzo) 缺阵，安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 和首轮英雄阿约·多孙穆 (Ayo Dosunmo) 出战成疑。为了从森林狼的角度获取一些观点，我邀请了我们兄弟网站 Canis Hoopus 的蒂洛·维德 (Thilo Widder) 来帮忙。
J.R. Wilco
我想你会同意，如果说你在第六场比赛开始前对明尼苏达的前景感到悲观，那简直是极大的保守说法。你关于丹佛在第五场击败森林狼的那篇文章，对球队表现的指责程度，简直就像政府对哈里什·奇丹巴兰 (Harish Chidambaran) 的指控一样严重。
然而，你们却让尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokic) 看起来平淡无奇，让贾马尔·穆雷 (Jamal Murray) 表现得极其糟糕。明尼苏达将“下一个人站出来”的格言提升到了一个新高度。你看，这个陈词滥调本意是当有人倒下时，他的替补能顶上。它的意思可不是替补突然开始试镜全明星首发！我本来还因为马刺不用打丹佛而欣喜若狂，现在却开始担心他们很难击败一支目前正遭受伤病困扰的球队。
所以告诉我，a) 你们在如此人手短缺的情况下是如何拿下丹佛的？b) 在第一场比赛中我最该担心什么？而除了文班，你最害怕什么？
Thilo
第六场击败丹佛归结为几个因素：油漆区触球、禁区威慑，以及纯粹、不加掩饰的恨意。
在多孙穆因小腿受伤倒下之前，他在第四场砍下43分的大师级表现中，除了5投5中的三分球外，进攻选择基本上全是上篮。森林狼的其他球员也处在一个同样有利于突破的环境中。
毫不夸张地说，掘金的阵容中完全没有护筐能力，以至于斯宾塞·琼斯 (Spencer Jones) 在第3到第6场比赛中成为了主要的禁区防守力量。这让 TJ·香农 (TJ Shannon) 有了发挥空间（他在NBA级别唯一的超常技能就是冲击篮筐），并让森林狼这支全联盟进攻最不稳定的球队之一，在除一场比赛外的所有比赛中得分都超过了110分。
另一方面，当丹佛被赶出三分线时，他们无法找到正常的得分节奏。尽管我们可以指责（并嘲笑）穆雷，但布鲁斯·布朗 (Bruce Brown) 和小蒂姆·哈达威 (Tim Hardaway Jr.) 变回“南瓜”（表现滑坡）带来的伤害同样巨大。
有趣的是，杰登·麦克丹尼尔斯 (Jaden McDaniels) 最好的防守角色并不是外线锁死者。虽然他完全有这个能力，但他可能更适合担任协防者（我们稍后会谈到这一点）。基于此，我怀疑圣安东尼奥会采取与对阵丹佛时完全不同的策略。
我会说麦克丹尼尔斯的角色转变是最值得担心的。除了显而易见的“我们可以用我们回归的前七球员来对位你们的前五球员”之外，这是我希望看到的改变。
防守对位上，阿约防福克斯，TJ防瓦塞尔，鲁迪·戈贝尔 (Rudy Gobert) 防文班亚马，而杰登则在斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 或朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 中威胁较小的那个人身上游走协防，这可能会非常有趣，极具破坏性，并且会导致得分极低。
至于面对马刺最可怕的地方，你们拥有的可靠武器比我们多。虽然我们有灵活性和“赢了算赚”的心态，但你们拥有一套贯穿整个赛季并成型的获胜方程式，几乎不需要重组。
更具体地说，森林狼已经缺少了大量的进攻发起者，而马刺给那些习惯于面对第三、第四防守选择的球员施加的防守压力，可能会瞬间瓦解森林狼如此迅速搭建起来的拼凑版方程式。
那个方程式包括第六场的一套超大号阵容：麦克丹尼尔斯打二号位，纳兹·里德 (Naz Reid) 打三号位，朱利叶斯·兰德尔 (Julius Randle) 和戈贝尔填补内线空间，再加上香农在控卫位置上“直捣黄龙”的打法。马刺的高度主要体现在文班身上，马刺的其他球员将如何应对这套阵容及其带来的高度优势？
J.R.
你说是不加掩饰的恨意。我听起来更像是转化后的反感，因为根据我的经验，带着愤怒打球可能在短时间内有效，但在整整48分钟的比赛中会让你精疲力竭。该死，甚至半场球可能都嫌多。即便如此，你们那帮人在阵容不断缩减的情况下，一直坚持到丹佛的“午夜钟声敲响”，这是我今年在NBA看到的印象最深刻的事情之一。看着那些掘金球员变回南瓜和老鼠，既令人愉悦又出人意料。
你说麦克丹尼尔斯的防守不适合做外线锁死者，但我预计达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)、卡斯尔和哈珀 (Harper) 会给森林狼施加足够的压力，以至于无论他多么想打弱侧协防，他都必须经常出现在外线。
至于你问到的阵容，我对这个系列赛的主要担忧是兰德尔和里德在持球时能从外线摧毁圣安东尼奥，并在防守时给文班制造各种麻烦。老实说，除了阿伦·戈登 (Aaron Gordon)，朱利叶斯可能是本赛季我对文班亚马防守做得最好的球员。至于圣安东尼奥将如何应对这种高度，这是一个价值6.4万美元的问题，我很高兴有人问出来。
在本赛季的大部分时间里，米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 都允许马刺打一些非常普通的战术，没有太多的想象力或复杂性。或者更直白地说，圣安东尼奥的进攻通常非常直接，甚至接近初级水平。为这种策略辩护的话，它确实有效。当基础进攻足以获胜时，为什么要逼球队做得更多呢？答案是：季后赛。它们现在来了，而明尼苏达的防守和高度可能正是迫使马刺使出浑身解数的原因。
现在我不指望他们像2014年的马刺那样在场上飞速传球，但如果他们真的这么做了，我也不会抱怨。除此之外，我认为当文班处于无球状态，并且球队利用他的垂直威胁所产生的引力时，圣安东尼奥的进攻处于最佳状态。当对手害怕他在无球状态下冲击篮筐，或者害怕他在油漆区附近任何地方接到球而没有防守人贴身时，这会为其他球员拉开空间，让他们投进空位三分，并通过侵略性的突破和及时的切入来撕裂防守。那时，防守方会对球队其他成员施加的压力做出反应，从而导致文班陷入单人防守甚至被漏掉——这显然是死刑。
这又回到了文班身上，这次我不会要求你不用他作为答案。既然你们对阵丹佛的成功很大程度上在于攻击篮筐，而文班在保护禁区和同时防守多名球员方面又是精英级别的，你认为森林狼得分并让圣安东尼奥的防守感到不适的最佳机会是什么？
Thilo
这个问题我可以从很多不同的方向来回答。我想给出的答案，或者说我认为人们在其他地方读不到的东西，是戈贝尔作为短下顺传球者的影响力。
我们通常认为在禁区得分是最大化突破的唯一方式。要么上篮得分，要么不进。要么扣篮，要么被盖，诸如此类。
戈贝尔从来不是一个能自信上篮，甚至能稳稳扣篮的人。多年来，用“在进攻端隐形”来形容他都是一种仁慈。当一个球员主要的进攻影响是掩护助攻时，你得是一个真正的篮球痴迷者才会给他在进攻端一些赞誉。
然而，曾经难以给出的称赞，现在已经变成了一个更明显、更值得进入集锦的优点。
效仿他的死对头德雷蒙德·格林 (Draymond Green)，戈贝尔已经进化了，他不再仅仅是一个进攻终结者，而是一个进攻延伸者。我想到了第六场比赛中的一个回合，那次传球让香农在右侧底角投中了一个三分球。
只指出一个回合意味着这是一个特殊情况，但这种情况在整个系列赛中都在发生。对文班的担忧总是既在于禁区威慑，也在于实际的盖帽数据。以前版本的戈贝尔在最初的“终结挡拆”计划失败后，会更倾向于在篮筐附近疯狂挣扎，试图制造犯规或做点什么。
现在版本的戈贝尔可以重新思考并制定新计划。
这在更大范围内意味着什么？即兴发挥在明尼苏达依然存在。森林狼队中每个应该获得轮换时间的球员，都有办法应对球场比他们习惯的距离篮筐缩短了大约8英尺的情况。
麦克丹尼尔斯的中距离在第六场表现出色。香农在转换进攻中快如闪电。兰德尔有他的肘区触球。名单还在继续。季后赛通常关乎优秀球员失去他们最喜欢的选择，不得不退而求其次选择第三或第四方案。
这次也不例外。
自从克里斯·芬奇 (Chris Finch) 来到明尼苏达后，“动态进攻”在森林狼圈子里一直是个笑话。尽管高层在阵容构建上有所作为，但芬奇个人最看重的一项特质是：稳定性。
无论文班防守谁，那个人都将负责把他从篮筐附近拉走。更有甚者，我假设森林狼想要通过换防攻击的人，将成为场上五分之四球员的目标。对于2024年的太阳队来说，那个人是德文·布克 (Devin Booker)。上个系列赛，是穆雷。对阵马刺？我猜会是福克斯。
我还有很多问题，但我确信米奇·约翰逊会读到这篇文章，我不想透露太多答案！我们将拭目以待这场比赛的结果！
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 Spurs need to get creative on offense to counter the Timberwolves’ size
The Spurs need to get creative on offense to counter the Timberwolves’ size
It’s been seven days since the Spurs vanquished the Portland Trail Blazers in Round 1 of the 2026 NBA Playoffs, and now, it’s finally gameday again. For Round 2, the Spurs face a Minnesota Timberwolves squad whose size gave them plenty of trouble in the regular season (as well as Nikola Jokic in Round 1) but is facing its own questions regarding health and offensive production, with Donte DiVincenzo out and Anthony Edwards and first round hero Ayo Dosunmo questionable. To get some perspective from the Wolves’ point of view, I enlisted the help of Thilo Widder from our sister site, Canis Hoopus.
J.R. Wilco
I think you’d agree that to say that you were down on Minnesota’s chances entering Game 6 would be a pretty serious understatement. Your piece on Denver’s win over the Wolves in Game 5 was about as serious an indictment of your team’s performance as the government’s charges against Harish Chidambaran.
And yet you guys made Nikola Jokic look ordinary and Jamal Murray look putrid. Minny took the “next man up” mantra to another level. See, that cliche is supposed to mean that when a guy goes down, his replacement is ready to play in his place. It’s not supposed to mean that the replacement suddenly auditions to be a starter on the all star team! I went from being ecstatic that the Spurs wouldn’t play Denver to being afraid that they’d be hard pressed to take down a team that’s currently under attack from the injury bug.
So tell me, a) how did you guys take down Denver while so shorthanded, b) what should I be most concerned about in Game 1, and what are you most afraid of, besides Wemby?
Thilo
Beating Denver in Game 6 came down to a few factors: paint touches, paint deterrence, and sheer, unadulterated hatred.
Before Ayo Dosumnu went down with a calf injury, his shot diet in his 43 point masterclass in Game 4 was functionally all layups outside of his 5/5 three point shooting. The rest of the Wolves team existed in a similarly slash-friendly environment.
There was, and this is no exaggeration, no rim protection whatsoever on the Nuggets roster to the point that Spencer Jones was the primary paint presence for Games 3-6. This enabled a TJ Shannon sighting (his only above-average skill at the NBA level is finding his way to the rim) and allowed the Timberwolves, one of the league’s most inconsistent offensive teams, to score over 110 in all but one game.
On the other side of things, Denver could not find a way to score at their normal level when run off the three point line. As much as we can point at Jamal Murray (and laugh), Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. turning back into pumpkins hurt just as much.
Funnily enough, Jaden McDaniels’ best defensive role is not as a perimeter stopper. While he’s more than capable there, he is arguably better suited as a help side defender (we’ll get to that later). To that point, I doubt we see a remotely similar strategy for San Antonio as we saw against Denver.
I’d say that role change for McDaniels is the biggest thing to be worried about. Outside of the obvious “we get to match your top-five player with our returning top-seven guy”, that’s the thing I hope would change.
A defensive matchup of Ayo on Fox, TJ on Vassell, and Gobert on Wemby, with Jaden roaming off of whoever of Castle or Champagnie is less intimidating could be incredibly fun, incredibly destructive, and disastrously low scoring.
As far as what’s the scariest in facing the Spurs, you guys just simply have more things you can count on than we do. While we have flexibility and house money, you have a winning formula that has been shaped by your whole season and has little to no restructuring needed.
For more concrete answers, the Wolves are already down a ton of initiators, and the defensive pressure the Spurs can put on guys who are already more used to and more prepared for facing third and fourth defensive options could instantly collapse the whole cobbled together formula the Wolves built so quickly.
That formula included a Game 6 lineup that was supersized, with Jaden McDaniels at the two, Naz Reid at the three, and both Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert filling out the space alongside TJ Shannon’s “go straight through them” play at point. The Spurs size comes primarily in the form of Wemby, how do the rest of the Spurs deal with that lineup and the size it brings?
J.R.
You say unadulterated hatred. I hear properly channeled distaste, because in my experience playing angry might work in spurts, but it will wear you out over a full 48 minutes. Shoot, even half a basketball game would probably be too much. That said, the way your crew was able to stick around with a dwindling roster until the clock struck midnight on Denver was one of the more impressive things I’ve seen in the NBA this year. Watching those Nuggets turning into pumpkins and mice was as enjoyable as it was unexpected.
You say that McDaniels’ defense isn’t best suited for being a perimeter stopper, but I’m going to expect Fox and Castle and Harper to put enough pressure on the Wolves that he’s going to need to spend time out there on the regular, regardless of how much he would prefer to play weak side help.
As for the lineup you asked about, my primary concern with this series is Randle and Reid wrecking San Antonio from deep when they have the ball, and causing Wemby all kinds of problems as they defend. Honestly, besides Aaron Gordon, Julius probably played the best defense I saw on Victor all season. As for how San Antonio will deal with all that size, that’s the $64,000 question, and I’m so glad it’s being asked.
For so much of the season, Mitch Johnson has allowed the Spurs to play pretty ordinary sets without much imagination or complexity. Or to be more blunt, San Antonio’s offense has often been very straightforward and bordering on elementary. In defense of this strategy, it’s been effective. Why push the team to do more when a basic offense is enough to win? Well, the answer is: the playoffs. They’re here now and Minnesota’s defense and size might be exactly what forces the Spurs to pull out all the stops.
Now I’m not expecting them to start whizzing the ball around the court like the 2014 Spurs, but I wouldn’t complain if they did. Lacking that, I think San Antonio’s offense is at its best when Wemby is off the ball and the team takes advantage of the gravity his vertical threat creates. When teams are terrified of him getting downhill without the ball, or receiving passes anywhere close to the paint without a man bodying him, it opens up space for guys to shoot open threes and gash defenses with aggressive drives and timely cuts. That’s when defenses react to the pressure from the rest of the team such that Wemby gets single-teamed or even forgotten – which is obviously a death sentence.
Which brings me back to Wemby, and this time I won’t ask you to not use him as an answer to your question. With so much of your success against Denver being to attack the rim, and with Wemby being elite at protecting the paint and guarding multiple guys simultaneously, what do you see as the best chance that Minny has to produce points and make San Antonio’s defense uncomfortable?
Thilo
I could take this answer in so many different directions. The answer I want to give, or rather the thing that I think people can’t read about elsewhere, is Rudy Gobert’s impact as a passer on the short roll.
We often think of scoring in the paint as the only way to maximize drives. Either you lay it up or you don’t. Either you dunk it or you’re blocked, and so on.
Gobert has never been one to lay it up confidently, or even dunk it safely. Describing his offensive game as invisible was doing him a kindness for many, many years. When a player’s primary offensive impact is screen assists, you need to be a real basketball degenerate to give him some credit for that side of the ball.
However, a compliment that was once hard to give has now found itself to a more obvious, highlight-worthy place.
Taking a page from his mortal enemy, Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert has evolved not as a play finisher, but as a play extender. There was a single play in Game 6 that led to a TJ Shannon three pointer in the right corner that comes to mind.
Pointing out just one play implies that this was a special occurrence, but this happened throughout the series. The worry with Wemby is always as much about rim deterrence as it is actual block numbers. A past version of Gobert would’ve been more willing to flail wildly at the rim in an attempt to draw a foul or do anything once the original plan of “finish the pick and roll” was flushed.
Today’s version of Gobert can rethink and create a new plan.
What does this mean on a larger scale? Improvisation is alive and well in Minnesota. Each player that should be getting rotation minutes for the Wolves has some way to deal with the court ending eight or so feet further from the rim than they are used to.
Jaden McDaniels’ mid range was fantastic in Game 6. TJ Shannon is a blur in transition. Julius Randle has his elbow touches. The list goes on. The playoffs are often about good players losing their favorite options and having to make due with their third or fourth choice.
This is no different.
The “motion offense” has been a bit of a running joke in Wolves circles ever since Chris Finch arrived in Minnesota. As much as higher management has approached roster building, Finch individually has valued one skill above all else: consistency.
Whoever is guarded by Wemby will be responsible for pulling him from the rim. Even moreso, I assume that whoever the Wolves will want to attack on switches will be the target for four of five players on the court. For the Suns in 2024, that player was Devin Booker. Last series, it was Jamal Murray. Against the Spurs? My guess would be DeAaron Fox.
There are so many more questions I’d have, but I’m sure Mitch Johnson reads this, and I don’t want to give away too many answers! We will see how this game turns out!
By J.R. Wilco, via Pounding The Rock