[PtR] “年轻”的马刺已行至半程

环球刺讯
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By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2026-05-17 02:00:00

想要赢得NBA总冠军，一支球队需要赢下16场季后赛。马刺阵中的大多数球员在进入今年的季后赛之前，甚至从未参加过一场NBA季后赛，更不用说赢下一场，甚至是16场了。马刺的主教练莱特 (Wright) 本质上也是一名菜鸟，担任主教练的时间仅一年出头——并且无论作为主帅还是助教，都没有任何NBA季后赛经验。

然而，马刺最好的球员曾在主场经受过奥运会金牌争夺战的压力，对手是那支由多位前MVP和金牌得主组成的美国队。马刺的二号球星在他唯一的大学赛季中一路过关斩将，赢下了夺得NCAA冠军所需的全部六场激烈的三月疯狂比赛。当然，这只是在为维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 仅22岁、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 仅21岁这一事实尽可能地贴金。马刺的第三后卫、新秀迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 只有20岁，而替补席上的重要贡献者卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 同样是新秀，年仅20岁且长得像16岁。布莱恩特有多年轻？看看他是如何形容格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 的：

“挺有意思的，因为你总能听到关于他对球员很严厉的传闻，显然，他不是我的主教练，所以我没有那种切身体会，”布莱恩特说道，“但我当时心想，‘你们在说什么呢？’这哥们儿是世界上最贴心、最友善的人。他简直酷毙了 (Dope)。”

没错，布莱恩特成为了历史上第一个用“酷毙了”来形容波波维奇的人。布莱恩特也是少数几个被派上场专门防守像安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 这样级别的球星，且乐在其中的20岁年轻人之一。

再看看这张来自明尼苏达第六场比赛的照片，在文班亚马罚中这一球后，马刺即将以54-27（是的，54-27）领先：

照片中的五名马刺球员在这一场关键的季后赛客场比赛中同时在场。他们的年龄分别是？20岁、20岁、21岁、22岁和25岁——德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 已经是其中的“老将”了。我问人工智能，这是否是NBA季后赛历史上同时在场的最年轻五人组。人工智能给了我这样的回复：

“哎呀，出错了。”

谢了，人工智能。看来你还没准备好统治世界。我想我可以回答自己的问题：“是的。”如果有人能证明我错了，尽管来。

我简短的研究表明，赢下季后赛比赛的最年轻首发阵容可能是今年的休斯顿火箭。火箭的首发球员分别是里德·谢泼德 (Reed Shephard, 21岁)、贾巴里·史密斯 (Jabari Smith, 23岁)、阿门·汤普森 (Amen Thompson, 23岁)、阿尔佩伦·申京 (Alperen Sengun, 23岁) 和塔里·伊森 (Tari Eason, 25岁)。马刺上面提到的那组球员会管那支火箭队叫“老家伙”，就像你在球场上管那群年纪稍大的球员叫“胜者”，好让你能在下一场比赛中把他们打得落花流水一样。（我本人就在那支老家伙队里。）

现在，这支年轻且缺乏经验的马刺在他们最近的生日里得到了梦寐以求的礼物：晋级NBA总决赛的机会。他们所需要做的，就是击败过去两个赛季中NBA最强的球队，也是自“死星”勇士以来最强的球队。正如年轻的卡特·布莱恩特会说的那样：那简直酷毙了。

其他想法

  1. 越来越多的人开始认同我的观点，即马刺并没有过剩的优质后卫——他们的数量恰到好处：三个。正如我多次指出的，球队需要填补两个后卫位置共计96分钟的场上时间。如果平均分配，每人将获得32分钟——这个数字非常接近波波维奇时代中期以来马刺核心球员的最高出场时间。例如，虽然伟大的邓肯在职业生涯早期上场时间较多，但在从2003-04赛季开始的12个赛季里，他场均上场时间并未超过34分钟。在今年的季后赛中，马刺的三位天才后卫场均上场时间分别为33分钟（达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)）、32分钟（卡斯尔）和25分钟（哈珀）。虽然全美国都在发现哈珀有多么优秀，但让我们先别急着宣布他是三人中最好的，尽管他将来可能会是（卡斯尔将是一个很难逾越的对手）。一方面，哈珀在季后赛场均仅有2次助攻，远低于福克斯（5.8次）和卡斯尔（6.1次）。相反，我们只能说，他们每个人在特定的时刻、单节或单场比赛中，偶尔会是表现最好的那一个。马刺的第二大超能力（我们都知道第一大是谁）就是他们有能力在任何时候让两名这样的后卫同时留在场上。
  2. 对文班亚马来说，这已经是一个奇怪的季后赛了。在对阵波特兰开拓者的首轮系列赛中，他因为脸部着地导致脑震荡而“把自己罚出场”。随后，NBA又因为他肘击纳兹·里德 (Naz Reid) 而将其驱逐。由于这两次意外，再加上一些起伏不定的投篮表现（有好有坏），文班在11场季后赛中的得分曲线就像一张惊悚的心电图：35分、5分、0分（缺阵）、27分、17分、11分、39分、27分、4分（被驱逐）、27分和19分。一个有趣的问题是：如果文班亚马是在第四场比赛的第四节末段肘击里德，而不是在第二节初段，或者如果马刺赢下了那场比赛，NBA会在第五场比赛对他禁赛吗？因为他不得不提前离开第四场比赛，本质上已经“自我禁赛”，而且马刺输了球，我相信NBA认为他和球队已经得到了应有的惩罚。
  3. 在系列赛打成2-2平后，我的大学好友杰米从他巴尔的摩的家中给我发了邮件：“我很期待你的分析。马刺看起来总是更出色，他们可能会赢，但森林狼很有观赏性，很容易让人为他们欢呼。”只有当过华盛顿奇才队球迷的人才会形容森林狼“有观赏性”。这里有一个小数据（引用自林书豪 (Jeremy Lin) 一篇精彩的Instagram帖子），马刺场均通过助攻得到的得分比森林狼多13分。对我来说，有观赏性意味着球员无私，享受为队友做嫁衣的过程不亚于自己得分。随便挑一支球队为例，比如2025-26赛季的马刺（或者是2014年那支打出“华丽篮球”的马刺）。第六场比赛中我最喜欢的时刻之一是，朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 在刚刚投中一记三分后，下一次进攻时获得了更空旷的机会。他没有选择出手，而是发现了篮下的文班亚马，并将球传给他完成扣篮。这才有观赏性！
  4. 我通常不怎么写关于东部联盟的内容（除了在前一段调侃杰米的奇才队）。但是，我的天呐，纽约尼克斯队刚刚在季后赛取得了七连胜，最后三场比赛的净胜分都超过了25分。我的尼克斯球迷朋友们每天都穿着同样的衣服，以免打破连胜的好运。或许马刺与雷霆系列赛的胜者，在总决赛中面临的考验会比一个月前任何人预想的都要严峻。

由生成式 AI 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 “young” Spurs are halfway there

The “young” Spurs are halfway there

To win an NBA championship, a team needs to win 16 playoff games. The majority of the players on the Spurs entered these playoffs without ever playing in an NBA playoff game, let alone winning one, or 16. The Spurs coach is also essentially a rookie, with just over one year of being a head coach — and no NBA playoff experience as either head or assistant coach.

However, the Spurs’ best player had faced the pressure of playing in an Olympic gold-medal game, at home, against a USA team filled with former MVPs and numerous previous gold medals. The Spurs’ second best player ran the table during his one college season, winning the six intense March Madness games necessary to win the NCAA championship. Of course, that is putting the best possible spin on the fact that Victor Wembanyama is only 22, while Stephon Castle is 21. The Spurs third guard, rookie Dylan Harper, is 20, while key bench contributor Carter Bryant, also a rookie, is 20 and looks 16. How young is Bryant? This is how he described Gregg Popovich:

“It’s funny because you hear the stories about him being tough on guys and, obviously, he’s not my head coach, so I don’t kind of get that same experience,” Bryant said. “But I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ This dude is the sweetest, nicest guy. He’s dope.”

Yes, Bryant became the first person in history to describe Pop as “dope”. Bryant is also one of the few 20-year-olds sent in the game specifically to cover a player as good as Anthony Edwards — and he loves the assignment.

And look at this picture from Game 6 in Minnesota, with the Spurs about to go up 54-27 (yes, 54-27) after Victor made this free throw:

The five Spurs in that photo were on the floor on the road in a crucial playoff game. Their ages? 20, 20, 21, 22 and 25 (Devin Vassel is the ancient one). I asked AI if those were the youngest five players to be on the floor together in an NBA playoff game. AI gave me this response:

“Oops, something went wrong.”

Thanks, AI. I guess you won’t be taking over the world quite yet. I think I can answer my question: ‘”Yes.” If anyone can prove me wrong, go for it.

My quick research indicates that the youngest starting unit to win a playoff game may have been this year’s Houston Rockets. The Rockets starters were Reed Shephard (21), Jabari Smith (23), Amen Thompson (23), Alperen Sengun (23) and Tari Eason (25). The Spurs group referenced above calls that Rockets team “the old guys”, like that group of older players on the court as you are calling “winners” so you can blow them off the court in the next game. (I am on that old guy team.)

And now the young inexperienced Spurs get just what they wanted on their latest young birthdays: a chance to go to the NBA Finals. All they need to do is win four games against the best NBA team over the last two seasons, and the best team since the Death Star Warriors. As young Carter Bryant would say: that would be dope.

Other Thoughts

  1. Many others are coming over to my view that the Spurs don’t have too many quality guards — they have the exact right number: three. As I have pointed out several times, teams need to fill 96 minutes between the two guard spots. If spread exactly evenly, that would be 32 minutes each — a number which is fairly close to the maximum number of minutes the Spurs best players have played since the middle of the Popovich era. For instance, while the Great Duncan played more minutes early in his career, he did not average more than 34 minutes per game for the twelve seasons beginning with the 2003-04 season. For these playoffs, the Spurs three wondrous guards averaged 33 minutes (De’Aaron Fox), 32 (Castle), and 25 (Harper). And while the rest of America is discovering how good Harper is, let’s pump the brakes a bit on declaring him the best of the three, though he might be someday (Castle will be tough to overcome). For one thing, Harper has averaged only 2 assists per game in the playoffs, well below Fox (5.8) and Castle (6.1). Instead, let’s just say that each of them is occasionally the best at any given moment, quarter or game. The Spurs’ second superpower (we know who the first one is) is their ability to have two of these guards on the floor at any given time.
  2. These have already been a strange playoffs for Victor. In the first series against the Blazers, he ejected himself by face-planting, leading to a concussion. Then, the NBA ejected him for the elbow against Naz Reid. As a result of those two incidents, and some funky shooting games (both good and bad), Victor’s scoring over the 11 playoff games looks like a scary EKG: 35, 5, 0 (DNP), 27, 17, 11, 39, 27, 4 (ejected), 27 and 19. Interesting question: If Victor had elbowed Reid late in the fourth quarter of Game 4, instead of early in the second quarter, or if the Spurs had won that game,would the NBA have suspended him for Game 5? Because he essentially suspended himself by having to leave Game 4 early, and the Spurs lost, I believe the NBA decided that he and the team had already received the proper punishment.
  3. My college buddy Jamie emailed me this from his home in Baltimore with the series 2-2: “I am looking forward to your analysis. The Spurs always look better, and they will probably win, but the T’wolves are fun to watch and easy to cheer for.” Only someone who has been a Washington Wizards fan would describe the Wolves as “fun to watch”. As one little factoid (stolen from an excellent Jeremy Lin Instagram post), the Spurs averaged 13 more points off assists per game than the Wolves. For me, fun to watch involves unselfish players who enjoy setting up a teammate as much as scoring themselves. To pick a team at random, the 2025-26 Spurs (or the 2014 Beautiful Game Spurs). One of my favorite moments in Game 6 was when Julian Champagnie, having just buried a three-pointer, got the ball even more wide open the next time down court. Instead of shooting, he spotted Victor under the rim and fired the ball to him for a dunk. Fun to watch!
  4. I generally don’t write much about the Eastern Conference (other than the cheap shot about Jamie’s Wizards in the prior section). But, holy cow, the New York Knicks just won seven straight playoff games, the last three by over 25 points. My Knick-fan friends are wearing the same clothes every day so as not to jinx the streak. Perhaps the winner of Spurs-Thunder will have more of a test in the Finals than anyone thought a month ago.

By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock