By James L. Edwards III | The Athletic, 2026-06-04 10:30:54
《The Athletic》正在为您图文直播尼克斯对阵马刺的2026年NBA总决赛第二场比赛。
圣安东尼奥——想象一下，你拥有漫长的NBA职业生涯，投篮时看着同样的篮筐视线、球划过同样的弧线、肌肉记忆也早已根深蒂固。然后，想象一个身高7英尺4英寸（约2米24）的外星人突然降临在你面前，将帮助你一路走上这项运动最高舞台的所有感官直觉全部摧毁。
这正是纽约尼克斯队周三晚上所面临的境地。这支凭借精英级投射在东部季后赛轻松突围的球队，如今站在了NBA总决赛的舞台上，迎战圣安东尼奥马刺队和维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)——一个能够颠覆你对人类身体极限一切认知的地外生物。
在首战开始前，人们很自然地会去关注一个数据：当文班亚马作为最近的防守人或出现在防守画面中时，纽约的投射型球员表现究竟如何。在西部决赛后期，当文班亚马在身边时——无论是近在咫尺还是在5英尺（约1.5米）开外，俄克拉荷马雷霆队的跳投就显得挣扎无比。他仅仅是起跳，就能迫使投手不得不别扭地重新调整投篮动作，试图越过这个如此高大的人障。因此，人们认为尼克斯在这些机会中的把握能力，或者说无能为力，将决定比赛的走向。
事实证明，这一预测完全正确。当文班亚马在身边时，纽约投手的跳投表现简直是灾难性的。
然而，尼克斯还是以105-95赢下了比赛。
“最重要的事情是，你必须把球投出去，”乔什·哈特 (Josh Hart) 说道，“不管是什么样的投篮，只要把球砸向篮筐就行。当文班上前干扰时，他就失去了防守位置，而像（米切尔·罗宾逊 (Mitchell Robinson)）这样的人就会在篮下处于无人防守的状态。”
据非官方统计，当文班亚马直接干扰，或者距离近到足以让投手产生犹豫时，纽约的跳投出手总共16投仅2中。那么，这又是如何让尼克斯受益，并帮助纽约拿下总决赛首战的呢？答案是，尼克斯全场拿下了23分二次进攻得分。同样据非官方统计，其中有10分是直接来自于文班亚马扑防投手后所产生的二次进攻机会。
这位马刺球星是这个星球上最好的防守者，很大程度上是因为他镇守禁区的威慑力无人能及。马刺队通常会让文班亚马去防守对方最不起眼的得分手，从而允许他在油漆区和篮框附近游弋，给任何想要突破的人带来恐惧。在这种情况下，文班亚马有时不得不扑出去干扰他所防守的球员，从而在禁区内留下一个7英尺4英寸（约2米24）的巨大空档。在周三的比赛中，文班亚马的这些扑防干扰机会让尼克斯钻了空子，使得像卡尔-安东尼·唐斯 (Karl-Anthony Towns)（抢下全场最高的4个前场篮板）和哈特（抢下2个前场篮板）这样的球员能够顺势切入，创造出更靠近篮筐的得分机会。
第一节就有一个极佳的例子。当时尼克斯14-7的开局优势荡然无存，反而以17-27落后。为了止血，唐斯找到了反跑空切的何塞·阿尔瓦拉多 (Jose Alvarado)，后者接球后直奔篮筐。然而问题在于，文班亚马当时正盘踞在禁区内，放空了纽约的投手麦尔斯·麦克布莱德 (Miles McBride)。文班亚马切断了阿尔瓦拉多的突破路线，但这位后卫做出了正确的选择，将球甩给在侧翼处于绝对空位的麦克布莱德。当麦克布莱德接球时，文班亚马从篮下飞扑而出，高高跃起，仿佛要整个人拍进墨西哥湾一样，用一次迟到的干扰迫使麦克布莱德投篮偏出。但这却让米卡尔·布里奇斯 (Mikal Bridges) 得以从三分线外飞身切入，在全场最高球员根本无法回防的情况下，抢下前场篮板并轻松补篮得手。
“如果你能把他拉出禁区，你就必须抓住机会，”麦克布莱德说道。
尼克斯不可能在这轮系列赛中保持之前的超高投篮效率——正是那种效率帮助他们在季后赛首轮1-2落后的情况下，一路高歌猛进取得11连胜，闲庭信步般杀入总决赛。马刺队的防守实在太出色了。然而，通过拼抢进攻篮板创造额外的出手次数，其杀伤力同样巨大。对防守方来说是巨大的打击，对进攻方则是极大的鼓舞。
如果尼克斯想要赢得53年来的首个总冠军，他们就必须在文班亚马下场休息或远离篮筐时果断出击。在第一场比赛中，他们在后者（将文班亚马拉离篮筐）上做得非常好，这也是他们整个季后赛强势表现的延续：在今年季后赛中，纽约场均二次进攻得分（18.1分）高居联盟第一。而在另一端，马刺队限制对手二次进攻得分（18.3分）排在倒数第二，这很大程度上是因为当文班亚马被拉开时，对手就能乘虚而入。
尼克斯的进攻实力过于强大，马刺队绝不能在单次防守回合中给他们多次把球放进篮筐的机会。然而，如果马刺想要最大限度地发挥这位世界上最好防守者的作用，他们或许别无选择。
“他们会经常用小个子球员去防守唐斯，当他们这么做时，我们希望唐斯能多呆在‘扣篮位’，”尼克斯主教练迈克·布朗 (Mike Brown) 说道，“我们不希望他待在三分线外。我们更希望哈特待在那里。我们知道文班依然会在附近游弋，但唐斯有望获得抢进攻篮板的机会。哈特如果处于空位就必须出手，或者迅速做出决策……我们正努力让队员们把比赛想得尽可能简单。”
尼克斯能够凭借唐斯、哈特等人的进攻篮板，来抗衡马刺最引以为傲的防守武器，这对于他们终结冠军荒的征程来说无疑是个好兆头。
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 Knicks couldn't score over Victor Wembanyama. That helped them win Game 1
The Knicks couldn’t score over Victor Wembanyama. That helped them win Game 1
The Athletic has live coverage of Knicks vs. Spurs in Game 2 of the 2026 NBA Finals.
SAN ANTONIO — Imagine having a long NBA career, shooting with the same line of vision to the rim, the same arc on the ball and the same muscle memory mapped out. Then imagine a 7-foot-4 alien being dropped in front of you, destroying all senses that helped you get to the sport’s highest stage.
That’s where the New York Knicks found themselves Wednesday night. A team that breezed through the Eastern Conference with elite shooting was now in the NBA Finals facing the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama, an extraterrestrial being capable of altering everything you think you know about the human body.
It made sense to approach Game 1 with the idea of tracking how well New York’s jump shooters could perform when Wembanyama was either the closest defender or somewhere in the picture. The Oklahoma City Thunder had struggled to make jump shots late in the Western Conference finals when Wembanyama was nearby, whether within inches or 5 feet away, and jumping just to force a shooter into an unnatural recalibration on how to deliver a shot over such an elongated human. The thought was that the Knicks’ success, or lack thereof, in these opportunities could determine the outcome of the game.
That proved correct. New York’s jump shooters were terrible when Wembanyama was around.
The Knicks won the game, 105-95.
“The biggest thing, you want to get shots up,” Josh Hart said. “It doesn’t matter what shot you get up, just get it on the rim. With Wemby contesting it, now he’s out of the play and someone like (Mitchell Robinson) is down there by themselves.”
Unofficially, New York shot 2 of 16 from the floor on jumpers when Wembanyama was either directly contesting or close enough to make the shooter stop and think. So how did that benefit the Knicks and play a part in New York taking Game 1 of the finals? The Knicks had 23 second-chance points on the night and, again unofficially, scored 10 points directly off second-chance points that came from Wembanyama contesting a shooter.
The Spurs star is the best defender on the planet, largely because his ability to deter any shot at the rim is unmatched. San Antonio will often put Wembanyama on the opposing team’s most unassuming scorer, allowing him to roam around the paint and near the rim to put fear into anyone thinking about driving. In such scenarios, Wembanyama sometimes has to run out and contest the man he’s covering, leaving a 7-foot-4 gap in the paint. On Wednesday, these Wembanyama contest opportunities allowed the Knicks to take advantage and put players such as Karl-Anthony Towns, who had a game-high four offensive rebounds, and Hart, who grabbed a pair of offensive boards, in position to swoop in and create closer looks.
One of the best examples of this came in the first quarter, when New York’s 14-7 start vanished and turned into a 27-17 deficit. To stop the bleeding, Towns found a curling Jose Alvarado, who caught the ball going toward the basket. The issue was that Wembanyama was hovering in the paint, playing off New York shooter Miles McBride. Wembanyama cut off Alvarado’s path, but the guard made the right play by swinging the ball to McBride, who was all alone for a 3 on the wing. Wembanyama darted from the basket when McBride caught the pass, jumping high in the sky as if he was doing a belly flop into the Gulf of Mexico and forcing a miss with the late contest. But that allowed Mikal Bridges to dart in from the 3-point line and grab an offensive rebound for a layup with the game’s tallest player nowhere to be found.
“If you’re able to pull him out of the paint, you have to take advantage,” McBride said.
New York wasn’t going to come into this series and shoot with the same efficiency that propelled it from being down 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs to winning 11 straight games in a moonwalk to the finals. The Spurs’ defense is too good. However, capitalizing on those missed shots by creating extra attempts can be just as impactful. It’s as debilitating to a defense as it is energizing for an offense.
If the Knicks are going to win their first championship in 53 years, they have to pounce when Wembanyama is off the court or away from the basket. They did well with the latter in Game 1, a continuation of what they’ve done all playoffs: New York ranks first in second-chance points per game (18.1) in these playoffs. On the other end of the spectrum, the Spurs rank second-to-last in opponent second-chance points (18.3), largely because opposing teams can swoop in when Wembanyama is out of the way.
The Knicks’ offense is too good for the Spurs to allow them multiple cracks at putting the ball in the basket on a single possession. Yet, they might not have any other choice if they want to best utilize the world’s best defender.
“They’re going to put a small guy on KAT quite a bit, and when they do that, we want KAT to hang out in the dunker spot,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “We don’t want him around the 3-point line. We’d rather have Josh there. We know Wemby is still going to be hanging around, but KAT is hopefully going to have a chance at offensive rebounds. Josh has to shoot the ball if he’s open or make a quick decision with the ball. … We’re trying to keep it as simple for our guys as possible.”
The Knicks’ ability to counter what makes the Spurs most special defensively — with the offensive rebounding of Towns, Hart and others — bodes well in their pursuit to end this championship drought.
By James L. Edwards III, via The Athletic