By Eric Koreen | The Athletic, 2026-05-30 09:00:59
在NBA历史上或许最具标志性的那一记投篮空心入网之前，迈阿密热火 (Miami Heat) 与圣安东尼奥马刺 (San Antonio Spurs) 在2013年总决赛的大部分时间里，其实都在轮番上演大比分痛击对手的戏码。
球迷们至今仍对总决赛第六场中雷·阿伦 (Ray Allen) 扳平比分的三分球记忆犹新——在队友克里斯·波什 (Chris Bosh) 抢下进攻篮板后，他迅速退至三分线外，手起刀落。热火随后在加时赛中涉险过关，并一鼓作气赢下了抢七大战，勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James) 也借此通过了格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 的终极考验：他是否愿意出手并投进那些马刺故意放给他的18英尺中距离？但在这些名场面诞生之前呢？马刺和热火在首场仅差4分的决战后，连续四场打出两位数的分差。第二场到第五场的平均分差高达20.25分。
尽管如此，那依然是一个堪称传奇的系列赛，尤其在马刺于次年完成复仇后，这段恩怨更显传奇色彩。而如今，我们——或者说马刺——再次置身于这样一个妙趣横生且难以预测的系列赛中，而且在未来几年里，两队极有可能多次重演这样的巅峰对决。马刺与俄克拉荷马城雷霆 (Oklahoma City Thunder) 将在周六晚上展开抢七决战，胜者将晋级总决赛，迎战纽约尼克斯 (New York Knicks)。
除了首场比赛——当时维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 在加时赛中狂轰41分24个篮板，打出毁天灭地般的统治级表现并率队取胜——之外，本系列赛其实还没有出现过单场经典的对决。然而，这依然应该被作为一个经典的系列赛而被载入史册。
说这一切是命中注定未免有些夸大其词。显然，任何打到抢七且包含加时赛的系列赛，命运都可能在瞬息之间发生逆转。但抢七确实是两队应得的归宿，哪怕自首场比赛以来，场均分差高达17分。这就是伟大球队之间碰撞出的火花，也是他们对超级巨星的考验：他们将彼此逼向极限乃至崩溃的边缘，迫使对手回到战术室重新钻研应对之策。有时他们能找到解法，有时则无功而返。每一场比赛，都会有新的变量浮现。但总体而言，双方的优势与劣势在近乎完美的平衡中相互博弈，从而形成了如今的僵持局面。
雷霆当家球星谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) 为何会在某些时刻统治比赛，却在另一些时刻显得狼狈不堪？一旦你撇开网上和各处那些只会把矛头对准裁判的嘈杂声音，你就会看清，马刺在防守端给外线的他施加了多么恐怖的防守尺寸与速度，同时在阿杰伊·米切尔 (Ajay Mitchell) 缺阵、杰伦·威廉姆斯 (Jalen Williams) 饱受腿筋伤势困扰的情况下，他独自扛起了多么沉重的进攻负荷。
他被迫在自己不舒服的区域出手，而在防守人几乎封到脸上的情况下，不得不比平时远两英尺进行急停跳投，这其中的难度天差地别，更不用说文班亚马在内线的镇守极大地限制了他的选择。这位两届卫冕MVP目前场均仅得到24.3分，投篮命中率低至37.9%。在这种情况下，吉尔杰斯-亚历山大依然能交出2.79的助攻失误比，这恰恰证明了他的耐心和出色的决策能力。
但是，作为如今NBA中最接近“无解”化身的文班亚马，难道不应该超脱于这些防守限制之上吗？有些时候他确实做到了，但雷霆在过去两年里能打造出历史级的防守，绝非侥幸。
在文班亚马首战打出神级表现后，外界关于雷霆该派谁去单防他的讨论其实偏离了重点。雷霆可以轮番派上各种不同体型的防守悍将去消耗他——高大强硬的以赛亚·哈尔滕施泰因 (Isaiah Hartenstein)、精干强悍的亚历克斯·卡鲁索 (Alex Caruso)、敦实粗壮的卢根茨·多尔特 (Luguentz Dort)——同时，他们还拥有全联盟默契度最高的协防体系来提供支持。虽然我们从未见过像文班亚马这样兼具极致身材与技术的球员，但任何如此高大的人在运球时，防守端总能找到切球或合围的机会。再加上德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 身体状况未达百分之百，进攻端出现断电甚至灾难级的表现也就不足为奇了。
相比北美其他四大职业体育联盟，NBA更是一个由超级巨星主导的联盟，因此人们很容易习惯性地透过SGA与文班的巅峰对决来审视这个系列赛。这确实不无道理。
但两队的整体防守——圣安东尼奥围绕独一无二的文班亚马构建的防守体系，以及俄克拉荷马城全员不知疲倦、无限撕咬的防守网——才是这轮系列赛真正的决定性力量。在雷霆输掉的三场比赛中，他们的进攻效率甚至不如本赛季联盟进攻最差的布鲁克林篮网 (Brooklyn Nets)；而马刺也有两次未能达到这一进攻及格线（不过这两场马刺都赢了）。
在任何一个夜晚，两队中某一方的防守都有可能主宰比赛。文班亚马和吉尔杰斯-亚历山大同样具备这样的统治力。两队的三分球投射都算得上优秀，但还没达到顶尖水平。在两周的漫长拉锯中，所有这些因素交织在一起，几乎注定了一场需要战至最后一刻、以微弱优势决出胜负的终极较量。正是这种旗鼓相当的均势，在保持健康和薪资空间管理得当的前提下，极有可能孕育出联盟历史上最伟大的宿敌对决之一。
这轮系列赛的走势，让人不禁联想起历史上的另一场经典对决。虽然文班亚马在面对雷霆时某些阶段打得有些挣扎，但在他上场的222分钟里，马刺累计净胜了55分；而在他下场休息的76分钟里，雷霆则净胜了37分。
回想2019年东部半决赛，尽管多伦多猛龙 (Toronto Raptors) 与费城76人 (Philadelphia 76ers) 在前六场战成3比3平，但其中仅有两场比赛的分差在10分以内。在前六场对决中，在乔尔·恩比德 (Joel Embiid)——另一位拥有前所未见的身材与技术结合的统治级中锋——出场的207分钟里，76人净胜了86分；而在他下场休息的81分钟里，76人竟然净负了92分。
那个系列赛的抢七大战，最终以季后赛历史上极少数能与2013年阿伦那记三分球相媲美的史诗级绝杀画上了句号。虽然我们无法保证马刺与雷霆在周六也会上演如此惊心动魄的戏码，但一切戏剧性冲突的温床显然已经铺就。
不妨让我们尽情畅想。
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 and Thunder deserve a classic Game 7, despite the blowouts
The Spurs and Thunder deserve a classic Game 7, despite the blowouts
Before perhaps the most iconic shot in NBA history splashed through the mesh, the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs spent much of the 2013 NBA Finals engaged in a series of bludgeonings.
Fans remember Ray Allen’s game-tying 3 in Game 6 of the finals, the shot he made after backtracking to the arc as teammate Chris Bosh grabbed an offensive rebound. The Heat went on to win the game in overtime, and then took Game 7, with LeBron James passing Gregg Popovich’s final test: Would he take and make the 18-footers the Spurs were willing to concede? Before those games, though? The Spurs and Heat had followed up Game 1, decided by four points, with four games with double-digit margins. The average margin of victory for Games 2 through 5 was 20.25 points.
Still, that was a legendary series, made even better in retrospect because the Spurs got their revenge the next year. Here we are — here the Spurs are, again — with another delightfully inscrutable series, one with a decent chance of repeating not only next year but in several to come. The Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder will play Game 7 on Saturday night, with the winner advancing to the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks.
Aside from Game 1, when Victor Wembanyama put up a 41-point, 24-rebound, world-devouring performance in an overtime win, there hasn’t been a classic game. Yet, this should be remembered as a classic series.
It would be an overstatement to call this inevitable. Any series that features an overtime game and goes the distance could have flipped on a moment, obviously. But it is what this series deserves, even if the average margin of victory since Game 1 has been 17 points. This is what great teams do to each other, and even do to the biggest stars: They push them to their breaking points and beyond, forcing the opposition to go back to the lab to find counters. Sometimes they can, and sometimes they fail. Each game, another variable looms. But on the whole, the strengths and weaknesses exist in near-perfect balance, creating a stalemate.
How can Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dominate in some moments and look discombobulated in others? Once you get past the trove of fans, online and elsewhere, that will point at the referees, you will see just how much defensive length and speed the Spurs can throw at him on the perimeter, and how much of the offensive load he is carrying with Ajay Mitchell out of the lineup and Jalen Williams limited by a hamstring injury.
He is forced to take shots just outside his comfort zone, and having to pull up from two feet further than usual with a hand in your face can make all the difference in the world, with Wembanyama’s presence in the middle limiting his options. The two-time defending MVP is averaging 24.3 points on just 37.9 percent shooting. That Gilgeous-Alexander has dished out 2.79 assists for every turnover is actually a testament to his patience and decision-making.
But shouldn’t Wembanyama, the closest thing the NBA now has to an inevitability, be able to rise above it all? At times he has, but Oklahoma City was not accidentally a historically great defensive team over the last two years.
The conversation about which Thunder player should guard Wembanyama after his brilliant Game 1 missed the point. The Thunder can throw all sorts of plus-defenders with different body types — the big and tough Isaiah Hartenstein, the wiry-strong Alex Caruso, the stout Luguentz Dort — at him while having some of the most attuned help defenders to complement them. We haven’t seen a player with Wembanyama’s blend of skills and size before, but anytime anyone that big dribbles, there is a chance to create defensive chaos. Add in that De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper are not at full health, and offensive disasters become possible.
The NBA, more than any other major North American sports league, is about superstars, so it is tempting to view the series through the prism of SGA and Wemby. There is some validity to that.
But the team defenses — San Antonio’s built around the one-of-a-kind Wembanyama, Oklahoma City’s the product of all-around relentless — are the true forces here. The Thunder have failed to score at the rate that the league’s worst offensive team, the Brooklyn Nets, did this season in all three of their losses, while the Spurs have failed to reach that mark twice. (They won both times.)
On any given night, one of those defenses can steal the show. Same with Wembanyama and Gilgeous-Alexander. Both teams are good, not great, from 3. Over the course of two weeks, all of those factors combine to all but guarantee a race that gets decided by a nose. It is that evenness that could, health- and cap management-willing, produce one of the best rivalries the league has ever seen.
There is another series that this one has echoed. Wembanyama has struggled at points against the Thunder, but the Spurs have won the 222 minutes he has been on the floor by 55 points. The Thunder have taken the 76 minutes he has sat by 37 points.
Even though the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers split the first six games of their 2019 second-round series, only two of those games were decided by 10 or fewer points. Through the first six games, the 76ers had won the 207 minutes that Joel Embiid, another center who had a previously unseen combination of size and skill, by 86 points. They had lost the 81 minutes he hadn’t played by 92 points.
Game 7 of that series finished with one of the only playoff shots that rivals Allen’s 3 in 2013. The Spurs and Thunder aren’t guaranteed to produce that kind of drama on Saturday. However, the conditions are there for it.
We can dream.
By Eric Koreen, via The Athletic