By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-05-05 02:35:03
2026年5月4日，周一，在圣安东尼奥弗罗斯特银行中心举行的西部半决赛马刺对阵明尼苏达森林狼的第一场比赛下半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫达龙·福克斯 (De’aaron Fox) (4) 对一次针对他的犯规判罚做出反应。马刺最终以 102-104 负于森林狼。
达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 本可以投进他前五次出手中的任何一个。朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 本可以投进他最后那一球。
斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 在领到第五次犯规后本可以表现得更有纪律性。而在创下 NBA 季后赛纪录的 12 次盖帽之间，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 本可以用他那 8 次投丢的三分球中的任何一次，换取一个投篮假动作接突破。
当你以两分之差丢掉西部半决赛的第一场胜利时，这些细节会让你耿耿于怀。尽管思考太久可能会让你听起来像个疯子。
“所以基本上，”文班亚马在总结周一马刺在弗罗斯特银行中心以 102-104 负于明尼苏达的比赛时说道，“如果一切都不同，那结果就会不同。”
这再次展现了他的青涩。森林狼队此前曾经历过这种场面，他们深谙季后赛篮球的真谛。
在每年的这个时候，想要反败为胜，并不需要一切都变得不同。
只需要改变几个回合。
如果马刺队正在寻找理由，来相信他们能够在这场注定是惨烈、充满身体对抗且刺刀见红的系列赛中杀回马枪，他们可以从这一点开始：
在一个球星们手感冰凉的夜晚，在一个他们无法护好球的夜晚，在一个关键时刻的聚光灯对他们来说显得有些过于耀眼的夜晚，他们竟然还是差点赢了。
这算不上什么“精神胜利”。但这确实有助于解释为什么马刺主帅米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 不太可能撕毁准备了六个月的策略，并在周三的第二场比赛中推倒重来。
“我不确定这是否到了需要拉响紧急警报的程度，”约翰逊说道。
确实不至于。马刺队有能力在接下来的六场比赛中赢下四场，即便森林狼在周一证明了为什么许多人认为他们可能是圣安东尼奥在西部除俄克拉荷马城之外最艰难的对手。
森林狼的防守像疯子一样，杰登·麦克丹尼尔斯 (Jaden McDaniels) 能让从福克斯到斯蒂芬·卡斯尔再到文班亚马的每一个人都感到痛苦，甚至让他们在考虑挑战篮下的鲁迪·戈贝尔 (Rudy Gobert) 之前就陷入困境。除此之外，森林狼的整体体型也是个麻烦，尤其是他们拥有一位马刺工作人员所称的“内线球员的多样性”。
戈贝尔、朱利叶斯·兰德尔 (Julius Randle) 和纳兹·里德 (Naz Reid) 是截然不同的球员，拥有迥异的优势。他们也在一起打过足够多的季后赛，知道如何利用这一点来发挥优势。更何况，当森林狼还拥有一位在这个领域最具活力的超级巨星——安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 伤愈惊喜回归时？
马刺无论做多少准备，都无法阻止爱德华兹在第四节到达他想去的投篮点。
因此，有一种观点认为，马刺浪费了在爱德华兹恢复满血状态之前偷得一场胜利的最后机会。但如果你承认森林狼很可能会随着系列赛的进行而变得更好，那么假设另一方也是如此不是理所当然的吗？
毕竟，马刺在第一场比赛结束时发现自己处于一个全新的境地。这支团队此前从未尝试过在季后赛中，面对一个同样拥有季后赛收割经验的对手来终结比赛。
文班亚马没做过。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔、尚帕尼、德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell)、凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 或是迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 也没做过——尽管这位从未在罗格斯大学打过哪怕一轮 NCAA 锦标赛的 20 岁新秀，看起来像是球队下半场最稳健、最能起到定海神针作用的力量。
在第一轮击败实力悬殊且同样缺乏经验的波特兰队，并不能让他们为此做好准备。但马刺在终场哨响前依然拥有绝杀的机会，而且他们无法画出比尚帕尼在时间耗尽前得到的那次更好的出手机会了。
那么，福克斯的表现是否应该比周一好得多？绝对如此。甚至连他自己也承认，他的六次失误中至少有两次是不可原谅的，而 14 投 5 中的惨淡表现也不是你对队内顶薪球员的预期。
但如果他当时是 14 投 6 中，或许就足够赢球了。
斯蒂芬·卡斯尔是否应该想办法在场上待得更久，即便他被赋予了在爱德华兹、兰德尔和麦克丹尼尔斯之间轮番防守的艰巨任务？是的。他现在已经在两场季后赛中六犯离场，马刺在这个系列赛中肯定需要他能打完最后时刻。
但如果他能多完成一次防守，或许就足够赢球了。
作为当之无愧的 MVP 竞争者，文班亚马是否应该想办法投出比 17 投 5 中更好的命中率，并拿到超过 11 分？同样，绝对如此。
但要在周一击败森林狼，他不需要砍下 50 分。他甚至不需要得到 20 分。14 分或许就足够了。
周一深夜，文班亚马被问到这是否是某种“一线希望 (silver lining)”。
“我不知道 ‘silver lining’ 是什么意思，”这位法国人说道。
如果他还需要一个翻译，那就是：马刺不需要在第二场比赛中让一切都变得不同。
他们只需要让某些事情变得不同。
而这一点，他们是做得到的。
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：Spurs don’t need emergency alert after learning lesson vs Timberwolves
Spurs don’t need emergency alert after learning lesson vs Timberwolves
San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox (4) reacts to a foul call on him during the second half of Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Minnesota Timberwolves at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Monday, May 4, 2026. The Spurs fell 104-102 to the Timberwolves.
De’Aaron Fox could have made any of his first five shots. Julian Champagnie could have made his last one.
Stephon Castle could have exhibited a little more discipline once he picked up his fifth foul. And somewhere in between his NBA playoff-record 12 blocks, Victor Wembanyama could have traded any of his eight 3-point misses for a pump fake and a drive instead.
That’s the stuff that haunts you when you let Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals slip away by two points. Even if thinking about it too long can make you sound crazy.
“So basically,” Wembanyama said, summarizing the Spurs’ 104-102 loss to Minnesota at Frost Bank Center on Monday, “if everything was different, it would have been different.”
That, again, was his inexperience showing. The Timberwolves have been here before, and they know the truth about playoff basketball.
To turn a defeat into a victory this time of year, everything doesn’t need to be different.
Just a couple of possessions do.
And if the Spurs are looking for reasons to believe they can claw their way back into what figures to be a punishing, physical, knife fight of a series, they can start with this:
On a night when their stars couldn’t shoot straight, and on a night when they couldn’t take care of the ball, and on a night when the crunch-time lights looked a little too bright for them, they almost won anyway.
That’s not a moral victory. But it does help explain why Spurs coach Mitch Johnson isn’t likely to tear up a strategy six months in the making and start over in Game 2 on Wednesday.
“I don’t know if it’s an emergency alert,” Johnson said.
It shouldn’t be. The Spurs are good enough to win four of the next six, even if Minnesota proved Monday why many thought it was probably San Antonio’s toughest non-Oklahoma City matchup in the Western Conference.
The Timberwolves defend like madmen, and Jaden McDaniels can make life miserable on everyone from Fox to Castle to Wembanyama before they even think about challenging Rudy Gobert at the rim. On top of that, Minnesota’s overall size is a problem, especially because it features what one Spurs staffer referred to as a “diversity of bigs.”
Gobert, Julius Randle and Naz Reid are very different players, with very different strengths. They’ve also been in enough playoff games together to know how to use that to their advantage. And when the Timberwolves also have one of the most dynamic superstars in the sport making a surprise return from an injury?
No amount of preparation by the Spurs could have stopped Anthony Edwards from getting to his spots in the fourth quarter.
So there’s one train of thought that suggests the Spurs wasted what might have been one of their last chances to steal a victory before Edwards gets back to full-strength. But if you acknowledge that the Timberwolves are likely to get better as the series progresses, isn’t it natural to assume the same about the other guys?
The Spurs, after all, found themselves in a completely new position at the end of Game 1. Never before had this group tried to close out a playoff game against an opponent with a history of closing out playoff games of their own.
Wembanyama hadn’t done it. Neither had Castle, or Champagnie, or Devin Vassell, or Keldon Johnson, or Dylan Harper, even if the 20-year-old rookie who never saw a single round of the NCAA tournament at Rutgers looked like the team’s steadiest, most stabilizing second-half force.
Beating an overmatched, similarly inexperienced Portland team in the first round couldn’t have prepared them for this. But somehow the Spurs still had a shot to win it at the buzzer, and they couldn’t have drawn up a play to get them a better look than the one Champagnie had as time expired.
Now, should Fox be a whole lot better than he was on Monday? Absolutely. Even he conceded that at least two of his six turnovers were inexcusable, and a dismal 5-for-14 shooting performance isn’t what you expect from your highest-paid player.
But if he’d gone 6-for-14, that might have been good enough.
Should Castle be figuring out a way to stay on the floor longer, even while given the unenviable task of alternating between Edwards and Randle and McDaniels? Yep. He’s now fouled out of two playoff games, and the Spurs sure could use him to finish a couple this series.
But if he’d been able to make just one more stop, that might have been good enough.
Should Wembanyama, a deserving Most Valuable Player contender, have found a way to shoot better than 5-for-17, and to score more than 11 points? Again, absolutely.
But to beat the Timberwolves on Monday, he didn’t need to score 50. He didn’t even need to score 20. Fourteen might have been enough.
Late Monday night, Wembanyama was asked if that was a silver lining.
“I don’t know what ‘silver lining’ means,” the Frenchman said.
If he still needs a translation here it is: The Spurs don’t need everything to be different in Game 2.
They just need something to be different.
And that much they can manage.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News