By Sam Amick | The Athletic, 2026-06-11 10:45:33
纽约——达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 脑海中的想法与他的实际行动大相径庭。毫无疑问，这两者之间灾难性的脱节，可能已经让圣安东尼奥马刺队丢掉了一座总冠军奖杯。
在周三总决赛第四战中，马刺惨遭纽约尼克斯队逆转，以106-107惜败，创下了NBA总决赛历史上最惨烈的崩盘。赛后，这位马刺老将后卫解释称，在他的设想中，他会开启自己那闻名遐迩的“喷射引擎”，将尼克斯队的OG·阿努诺比 (OG Anunoby) 远远甩在身后。毕竟，这位马刺后卫的外号是“Swipa”（神偷），这正是对他那引以为傲、视作最强超能力的顶级速度的致敬。
既然如此，他当然觉得自己能追上自己挑传向前的皮球，像赛前热身上篮那样轻松完成快攻，在比赛还剩11秒时帮助马刺取得3分领先。尽管上个月的伤病放慢了他的脚步——包括在对阵俄克拉荷马城雷霆队的西部决赛中再次受伤的高位踝关节扭伤——但福克斯坚信自己的双腿依然能跑得动。
“我当时只是觉得我能跑得比他快，”他说，“仅此而已。”
但他想错了。
考虑到这场比赛第二关键回合结尾的剧情反转，最令人惊叹的是，在回合刚开始时，阿努诺比甚至跑错了方向。这位身高6英尺7英寸、体重240磅的侧翼当时正在拼抢杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson) 三分投失后的长篮板，却眼睁睁看着福克斯将球从他身边捅走并朝反方向奔去。在重心被晃、方向跑反的情况下，阿努诺比居然还能想方设法追上来，这让球馆里的每一个人都感到震惊。
而最震惊的，莫过于福克斯自己。
福克斯在起跑时被身旁跑过的阿努诺比撞了一下，损失了一些速度。当两人冲到油漆区时，他已经看到了阿努诺比，但依然决定按原计划行事。这一决定带来了灾难性的后果，阿努诺比直接扇飞了他的上篮，整个篮球界也随即开始质疑：为什么福克斯不选择把球运出来消耗时间，等待对手犯规（从而稳稳罚球）？
赛后，福克斯勇敢地面对媒体的狂轰滥炸，回答了每一个问题，并坚称这支马刺队仍有办法从1-3落后的绝境中翻盘。但可以肯定的是，他的解释很难说服那些不赞同他当时选择的人。
“当时想的是争取上篮得分，领先3分，逼他们必须投三分，”当被问及为什么做出这个选择时，福克斯说，“OG（阿努诺比）完成了一次漂亮的盖帽。”
一场48分钟的比赛从来不仅仅取决于某一个回合。正如教练们常说的那样，比赛前半段的攻防与最后阶段同样重要。
然而，虽然像这样的回合会因为发生的时间和关键程度而被永远铭记，但总有其他回合——比如在比赛还剩1分47秒、马刺领先1分时，维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 的两罚不中——尽管同样影响了比赛结果，却未能吸引同等的审视或关注。
并不是说文班不知道这种糟糕的滋味。在马刺输掉的第二场比赛中，正是他在比赛后期的致命失误——一记传球直接砸在了斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 的后脑勺上——被广泛认为是马刺大比分0-2落后的罪魁祸首。你不能接二连三地犯下这种篮球场上的低级错误，将到手的胜利拱手相让，却还指望能捧起奥布莱恩杯。
对于福克斯来说，这一幕将刻骨铭心，就像文班无法忘记自己的失误一样。除非这支马刺队能加入2016年克利夫兰骑士队的行列，成为联盟历史上仅有的另一支在总决赛1-3落后情况下实现逆转的球队（在整个季后赛历史中，也只有15支球队做到过这一点）。更糟糕的是，随着尼克斯在下半场发起狂烈反扑，这并不是这位28岁的全明星后卫在场上经历的唯一艰难时刻。
福克斯不仅遭遇了手感冰冷的夜晚，全场16投仅6中（包括第四节5投1中），而且他的全部4次失误都发生在比赛的最后17分钟内。
- 第三节中段，福克斯在文班亚马掩护后送出一记击地传球，但这位大个子选择外拆，而福克斯则以为他会顺下。当时马刺还领先22分。
- 中场附近一次从左到右的传球，皮球从文班亚马和卡斯尔之间飞过，而卡斯尔在快攻中再次没有看向持球人。领先优势缩水至18分。
- 第三节还剩33秒时，他在运球时砸到了自己的脚上，在尼克斯起势之际将球踢上了看台。领先优势只剩15分。
- 第四节还剩2分07秒时，他在三分线外送出了一记无人接应的跳传。文班亚马在掩护后选择顺下，而福克斯似乎以为他会外拆，阿努诺比伸手碰到了这记传向空档的皮球。尼克斯队的乔什·哈特 (Josh Hart) 随即反击快攻，但上篮偏出。此时领先优势仅剩1分。
最后的致命一击发生在比赛尾声，阿努诺比在布伦森又一次三分投失后飞身补篮得手，将自己的名字载入了尼克斯的史册。有些残酷而讽刺的是，阿努诺比之所以能获得一条毫无阻碍的冲刺起跳通道，唯一的原因正是福克斯在最后几秒选择漏掉他，去右侧翼包夹布伦森。
战术选择再次带来了痛苦，马刺现在发现自己正处于休赛期无尽懊悔的边缘。
“我们必须努力把这一切抛在脑后，”福克斯说，“重新做好我们在这些比赛中表现出色的地方……我们必须找到守住领先优势的方法。在这四场比赛中，我们都曾建立起两位数的领先优势，我们必须想办法保持下去。”
“这显然看起来像是一座难以逾越的高山，但这种逆转以前也发生过……我们觉得我们拥有一支能够实现逆转的队伍，但我们必须一步一个脚印，打好每一场比赛。”
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：De'Aaron Fox's fateful decision haunts the Spurs after devastating Game 4 loss
De’Aaron Fox’s fateful decision haunts the Spurs after devastating Game 4 loss
NEW YORK — What De’Aaron Fox thought versus what De’Aaron Fox did were two very different things. And the disastrous disconnect between them, make no mistake, might have cost the San Antonio Spurs a title.
In his mind, as the veteran Spurs guard explained after the worst collapse in NBA Finals history against the New York Knicks, a 107-106 loss in Wednesday’s Game 4, he would turn on the afterburners for which he has long been known and leave the Knicks’ OG Anunoby in his wake. The Spurs guard’s nickname is “Swipa,” after all, a hat-tip to the elite speed that has always been his greatest superpower.
Surely, then, he could chase down the ball that he’d tipped to himself and finish the break as if he were in the pregame layup line while putting the Spurs up three with 11 seconds to go. Even with the ailments that slowed him last month, including a high ankle sprain that he reinjured in the Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Fox was sure that his wheels would still work.
“I just thought I’d be able to outrun him,” he said. “That’s it.”
He thought wrong.
The remarkable part, given the plot twist at the end of the game’s second-biggest play, is that Anunoby was running the wrong way when it began. The 6-foot-7, 240-pound wing was chasing the long rebound off a Jalen Brunson missed 3, only to see Fox poke the ball right past him and head the other way. That he found a way to catch up, after getting caught flat-footed and facing the wrong direction, shocked everyone in the building.
No one more so than Fox himself.
Fox, who lost some speed at the start of his sprint when Anunoby bumped him as he ran by, saw Anunoby by the time they reached the paint and still decided to go ahead with the plan. It backfired dramatically, with Anunoby swatting the layup and the greater basketball world immediately wondering why Fox instead didn’t dribble the ball out to kill time while waiting for the foul (and subsequent free throws).
Fox faced the media music afterward, answering every question that came his way and insisting that these Spurs can still somehow come back from this 3-1 series deficit. But his explanation, it’s safe to say, will do little to dissuade those who disagreed with his choice.
“Try to get a layup, get up three and force them to need a 3,” Fox said when asked about why he made the choice. “OG made a good block.”
A 48-minute game never comes down to one play. As coaches so often say, the ones on the front end matter just as much as the ones at the back.
Yet while plays like this one will be forever remembered because of the timing and stakes, there are always others — like Victor Wembanyama’s two missed free throws with 1 minute, 47 seconds left and the Spurs up one — that don’t draw the same scrutiny or spotlight despite factoring into the result.
Not that Wemby doesn’t know this awful feeling. It was his late-game blunder in the Spurs’ Game 2 loss — a pass to the back of Stephon Castle’s head — that was widely deemed the reason the Spurs trailed 2-0. You can’t stack up these kinds of basketball sins, blowing games that are right there for the taking, and still expect to walk away with the hardware.
There will be no forgetting this one for Fox, just as there wasn’t for Wemby. Not unless these Spurs join the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers as the only other team in league history to recover from a 3-1 deficit in the finals (15 teams have done it in the playoffs). And to make matters worse, this wasn’t the only tough moment for the 28-year-old All-Star as the Knicks roared back in the second half.
Not only did Fox have a rough shooting night, missing 10 of 16 from the field (including 4 of 5 shots in the fourth quarter), but all four of his turnovers came in the final 17 minutes of the game.
- A mid-third-quarter bounce pass off a Wembanyama screen in which the big man popped when Fox expected him to roll. The Spurs led by 22 at that point.
- The left-to-right pass near midcourt that sailed between Wembanyama and Castle, who, yet again, was not looking at the ballhandler in transition. The lead was down to 18.
- The dribble off his foot with 33 seconds left in the third, when he kicked it into the stands as the Knicks’ momentum grew. The lead was 15.
- The jump-pass to no one above the 3-point line with 2:07 left in the fourth. Wembanyama rolled on the screen when it appeared Fox expected him to pop, and Anunoby got his hand on the pass that landed in space. The Knicks’ Josh Hart was off and running the other way, only to blow the layup. The lead was just one.
The final exclamation point came at the end, when Anunoby placed himself in Knicks lore with the soaring tip-in of another Brunson missed 3. It was fitting, in a brutal sort of way, that the only reason he had an open lane to accelerate and launch was because Fox left him to double-team Brunson on the right wing in those final seconds.
The chosen plan led to pain, yet again, and the Spurs now find themselves on the edge of much offseason regret.
“We’ve got to try to put it behind us,” Fox said. “Get back to the things that we’ve done well in these games. … We have to figure out a way to hold the lead. We’ve been able to build double-digit leads in all four of these games, and we’ve got to figure out a way to sustain that.
“It obviously looks like a steep hill, but this is something that’s happened before. … We feel like we have a team that is able to come back from this, but we have to take this one game at a time.”
By Sam Amick, via The Athletic