By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-05-07 02:52:58
2026年5月6日，星期三，在圣安东尼奥弗罗斯特银行中心举行的西部半决赛第二场下半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) (4) 寻找传球机会。马刺队以133-95大胜森林狼队，将系列赛大比分扳成1-1平。
这名新秀和大家一样，也想知道那个问题的答案。周三晚上开球前一小时，卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 探头看向更衣室，扫视了一圈，皱起眉头。
“有人看到福克斯了吗？”他问道。
这种缺席很不寻常。通常在这个时候，这名马刺队经验最丰富的后卫应该已经系好鞋带，准备前往球场热身了。
但德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 更衣柜前的椅子依然空着。正在寻找赛前投篮搭档的凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 走了进来，重复了那个晚上的疑问。
“福克斯还没过来吗？”
他还没到。事实证明，他去了米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 的办公室，不是为了正式会议，而是为了马刺队主教练所说的“一次提醒”。
提醒福克斯为什么马刺队让他成为队内薪水最高的球员；提醒他拥有让身边每个人变得更好的能力；提醒教练组从未担心过他会过于自私或侵略性过强。
而一旦他记起了这一切？
在西部半决赛的第二场比赛中，再也没有人需要询问福克斯在哪儿了。
“如果你回头去看看我们表现最好的那些时刻，”约翰逊在以133-95大胜明尼苏达后说道，“他通常就处于这一切的核心位置。”
马刺后卫德阿隆·福克斯谈及第二场的重新调整：“我们没有做超级巨大的调整。那是我们第一场就想做的。我们想打出身体对抗，尝试破坏传球路线，尝试让他们打得更快，这场比赛我们做得更好了。” pic.twitter.com/6dZZL4zs9N
— Spurs Nation (@ Spurs_Nation) May 7, 2026
从这场扳平系列赛比分的胜利跳球开始，福克斯就坐镇于“核心位置”。
不像惨淡的第一场——当时他14投仅5中，并出现了6次失误——这一场他从开局就进入了进攻模式，并贯穿始终。
并不是每一次突破都能转化为自己的得分，也不是每一次突破都能转化为助攻。但随着他在第一节一次又一次地杀入森林狼队的防线腹地，形势变得明朗：他在掌控节奏，而这意味着维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 可以掌控剩下的一切。
“就是，‘不要打得畏首畏尾，’”福克斯谈到赛前与主教练谈话中得到的讯息时说道，“上场去，做回我自己。”
人们有时会忘记，当福克斯做回自己时有多么优秀。在NBA季后赛中，每一次投篮不中都会招来热议，每一场失利都会引发对交易明智性的全民公投，甚至连一名28岁的全明星球员也可能开始自我怀疑。
福克斯承担了第一场失利的责任。他不是马刺输球的唯一原因，但他打得确实不够好，这一点人尽皆知。
但在办公室里坐着的约翰逊知道另一件事。尽管年轻人斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 在今年季后赛中表现出色——两人在周三的比赛中再次表现亮眼——但他们谁都无法像福克斯那样释放球队的全部潜力。
当福克斯能够杀入防线核心，他就能吸引注意力。当他推快节奏，他就能让马刺队变成一个快节奏的怪兽。当这一切发生时，即使是在他像第二场那样仅拿到16分、2次助攻这种平淡数据的夜晚，他也能产生约翰逊所说的“对我们球队可能最强烈的连锁反应”。
2026年5月6日，星期三，在圣安东尼奥弗罗斯特银行中心举行的西部半决赛第二场上半场，圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) (4) 从地板上起身。
“所以我不需要去挑战他，”约翰逊说，“我只是想让他知道，我可能并不总是这么告诉他，但事实就是如此。”
信息的另一部分？福克斯曾凭借对比赛末节的大心脏表现，在萨克拉门托效力期间成为了NBA首届年度最佳关键球员（Clutch Player of the Year）的获得者，他需要被提醒，他不需要等到第四节才在比赛中留下自己的印记。
经历了第一场的结局，马刺队已经输不起了。他们不能冒着大比分0-2落后的风险去明尼苏达，也不能给安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 任何理由相信他和森林狼队可以在周三的弗罗斯特银行中心再偷走一场胜利。
他们需要尽早熄灭这种希望，而这正是福克斯和文班亚马在开局阶段的猛攻所做到的。
当然，一场大胜并不意味着季后赛的挑战已经解决。上一次森林狼队参与如此一边倒的季后赛，是在去年五月的西部决赛中以143-101击败俄克拉荷马城。
你可能还记得，雷霆队随后赢下了那轮系列赛剩下的全部四场比赛，并最终夺得NBA总冠军。
周三马刺队的这场狂胜也会成为一个孤例吗？福克斯和他的队友们现在的任务就是确保这种情况不会发生。
森林狼队主教练克里斯·芬奇 (Chris Finch) 经验丰富。爱德华兹和他的队友们也曾经历过这些。他们会对福克斯做出调整，下次福克斯可能无法如此轻易地杀入核心地带。
但在经历了第一场职业生涯最艰难的夜晚之一后，他确实在周三回答了至少一个相关的问题。
“有人看到福克斯了吗？”
现在，人们看到了。
而且，时机正合适。
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：‘Anybody seen Foxy?’ How De’Aaron Fox took reminder to heart in Game 2
‘Anybody seen Foxy?’ How De’Aaron Fox took reminder to heart in Game 2
San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox (4) looks to make a pass during the second half of Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. The Spurs rolled past the Timberwolves 133-95 to even the series at 1-1.
The rookie wanted to know the same thing everybody else did. An hour before tipoff Wednesday night, Carter Bryant poked his head through the locker room door, surveyed the scene, and furrowed his brow.
“Anybody seen Foxy?” he asked.
The absence was unusual. Usually around this time, the Spurs’ most experienced guard would be lacing up his shoes and about to head to the court to warm up.
But there was the chair in front of De’Aaron Fox’s locker, still empty. Keldon Johnson, looking for his pregame shooting partner, walked in and repeated the question of the evening.
“Did Foxy come through here yet?”
He had not. As it turned out, he’d stopped by Mitch Johnson’s office, not for an official meeting, but for what the Spurs head coach classified as a reminder.
A reminder why the Spurs made Fox their highest-paid player. A reminder of his power to make everyone around him better. A reminder that the coaching staff had never once had to worry about him being too selfish, or being too aggressive.
And once he remembered all that?
In Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals, nobody had to ask where Foxy was anymore.
“If you go back and watch our best moments,” Mitch Johnson said after a 133-95 mauling of Minnesota, “he’s usually right in the middle of all of it.”
Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox on regrouping for Game 2: “We didn’t make super adjustments. That’s what we wanted to do in the first game. We wanted to be physical, try to get deflections, try to speed them up, and we did a better job at that this game.” pic.twitter.com/6dZZL4zs9N
— Spurs Nation (@ Spurs_Nation) May 7, 2026
From the opening tip of a victory that evened the series, “the middle of all” of it is where Fox set up shop.
Unlike in a miserable Game 1, when he shot 5-for-14 from the field and committed six turnovers, he started in attack mode and stayed there.
Not every drive led to a bucket for himself. Not every drive resulted in an assist. But as he kept darting into the middle of the Timberwolves defense over and over in the first quarter, it became clear that he was dictating the tempo, and that meant that Victor Wembanyama could dictate the rest.
“It was just, ‘Don’t play on your back foot,’” Fox said of the message he took from his pregame conversation with his head coach. “Just come out there and be me.”
People forget sometimes how good Fox is when he’s being himself. In the NBA playoffs, when every missed shot requires a hot take and every loss serves as a referendum on the wisdom of a trade, even a 28-year-old All-Star can start to forget it, too.
Fox accepted the blame for Game 1. He wasn’t the only reason the Spurs lost, but he wasn’t nearly good enough, and everybody knew it.
But sitting in his office, Johnson knew something else. As great as youngsters Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper have looked this postseason — and both of them looked great again Wednesday — neither one of them can unlock everything Fox can.
When Fox can get into the teeth of the defense, he attracts attention. When he pushes the pace, he turns the Spurs into an up-tempo monster. And when that happens, even on a night when he posts a ho-hum 16-point, two-assist stat line like he did in Game 2, he can have what Johnson called “probably the strongest ripple effect on our team.”
San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox (4) gets up off the court during the first half of Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
“So I didn’t need to challenge him,” Johnson said. “I just wanted him to know that I may not always tell him that, but it’s true.”
Another part of that message? Fox, whose penchant for late-game theatrics made him the inaugural winner of the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award in Sacramento, needed to be reminded that he doesn’t need to wait until the fourth quarter to put his fingerprints on a game.
After the way Game 1 ended, the Spurs couldn’t afford to mess around. They couldn’t risk going to Minnesota trailing 2-0 in the series, and they couldn’t give Anthony Edwards any reason to believe he and the Timberwolves could steal another one at Frost Bank Center on Wednesday.
They needed to extinguish that hope early, and that’s what the opening flurry by Fox and Wembanyama did.
One blowout, of course, does not mean a postseason challenge has been solved. The last time the Timberwolves were involved in a playoff game as one-sided as Wednesday’s, they beat Oklahoma City 143-101 in last May’s Western Conference Finals.
The Thunder, you might remember, won all four other games of that series on their way to an NBA championship.
Will Wednesday’s Spurs romp prove to be an outlier, too? The task for Fox and company now is to make sure it isn’t.
Minnesota coach Chris Finch knows what he’s doing. Edwards and his teammates have been here before. They’ll have adjustments for Fox, who might not be able to get into the middle of everything so easily next time.
But after one of the toughest nights of his career in Game 1, he did answer at least one pertinent question on Wednesday.
“Anybody seen Foxy?”
People have now.
And not a moment too soon.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News