By Jared Weiss | The Athletic, 2026-06-13 09:45:58
圣安东尼奥——马刺拥有一套贯穿全年的行之有效的防守公式。维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 镇守篮下，对方的持球人只能绕道而行，圣安东尼奥凭借防守赢下比赛。
卡尔-安东尼·唐斯 (Karl-Anthony Towns) 成了这套防守的解药。在马刺闯入总决赛的道路上，他们从未遇到过一支能用“五外”阵容真正威胁到他们的球队。俄克拉荷马雷霆本该做到这一点，但切特·霍姆格伦 (Chet Holmgren) 却打出了近期记忆中最糟糕的系列赛之一。
唐斯制造了霍姆格伦无法提供的威胁，这也是尼克斯有机会在周六夺冠的最大原因。第四战下半场，马刺竭力逆流而上，试图让文班亚马留在最舒适的防守位置。但纽约制造了太多挑战，让这一设想变得无法维持。再加上马刺极其糟糕的进攻执行力，尼克斯得以完成了我们见过的最伟大的逆转。
那么，这一切是如何发生的？
通常情况下，马刺会让文班亚马去防守对方场上最差的射手或大个子，从而让他能够留在油漆区附近。根据 NBA Stats 的数据，在本系列赛中，他有 79.6 个部分回合在防守唐斯，45.2 个回合防守米切尔·罗宾逊 (Mitchell Robinson)，39 个回合防守OG·阿奴诺比 (OG Anunoby)，35 个回合防守乔什·哈特 (Josh Hart)。这些数据可能不包括文班亚马实际上处于区域协防、并没有真正盯防任何人的时候。
文班亚马有 27.9 个部分回合在防守杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson)，经常在一种被称为 “Veer”（侧向换防）的换防中对上这位尼克斯球星。这些瞬间决定了比赛的走向，因为这让马刺的防守陷入轮转，并消耗了文班亚马的体力，剥夺了他比赛后期的进攻杀伤力。
这种情况发生在文班亚马在掩护中沉退防守时，但布伦森冲击篮下的速度太快，以至于文班亚马不得不呼叫换防并上前延误布伦森。这会导致像达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 这样的人去防守唐斯，这要么会引发一系列换防以纠正错位，要么会让唐斯获得低位单打或争抢前场篮板的优势。
尼克斯非常擅长通过在清空角的侧翼发起布伦森与唐斯的配合，来强行制造这种 Veer 换防。理论上，所有这些 Veer 换防应该对文班亚马的体力有所帮助，因为他不需要进行那么多的跨场奔跑，可以安稳地防守一个人。但甚至在下半场的第一分钟，布伦森就在一次换防中轻松变向晃过他，一路杀入油漆区，并给阿奴诺比创造了一个空位三分机会。讽刺的是，最后反而是文班亚马一路狂奔去扑防阿奴诺比的投篮。
第三节开始几分钟后，麻烦悄然显现，当时文班亚马封堵了米卡尔·布里奇斯 (Mikel Bridges) 的突破，但混乱开始蔓延。布里奇斯移动到弧顶手递手传球给布伦森，而唐斯在罚球线位置设置了一个下掩护。当文班亚马缩在唐斯的掩护下方，而实际防守唐斯的凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 也做出了同样的选择时，警报拉响了。布伦森迎着大空位出手三分，而文班亚马则指着约翰逊示意他上前补防。
突然之间，尼克斯找到了解决办法。
当罗宾逊重新回到场上时，布伦森开始针对文班亚马的深沉退防守展开攻击。雷霆也曾尝试用谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) 采取这种策略，但对尼克斯来说效果更佳，因为布伦森更倾向于通过中距离急停跳投来拉开空间，而不是在马刺精明的防守者面前制造犯规。当文班亚马通过提上防守来应对，从而失去限制罗宾逊顺下的能力时，尼克斯把防守福克斯的人钉在篮下，这样这位控球后卫就成了弱侧的护筐者。这显然行不通。
文班亚马在第四战后表示，问题可以追溯到第三节，而这些防守策略上的问题正是根源所在。
马刺的联防在第三节末和第四节初止住了颓势，但在进入关键时刻时，他们重新换回了人盯人防守，并让文班亚马担任弱侧底线协防人（low-man）位置。尼克斯将他们最好的射手、同时也是优秀的突破手阿奴诺比放在了对侧底角。马刺本可以让文班亚马去防守哈特，让他守在油漆区顶端进行区域协防，但他们大多选择让他留在底线附近。
这给布伦森亮了绿灯，让他去寻找单打朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 的换防机会，后者在整个季后赛中一直是对手在关键时刻的主要针对目标。尚帕尼的防守价值在于他在防突破时的下手切球和篮板球，但速度快的后卫可以利用他的脚步移动，在第一防线就将他击败。
在比赛还剩 5 分 35 秒时，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和尚帕尼在转换防守中退防，卡斯尔示意尚帕尼去防守布伦森。也许这本质上是一个提前换防，希望布伦森在打挡拆时能让尚帕尼摆脱防守。布伦森把球传给了唐斯，后者在单打中无法逾越文班亚马。随后布伦森重新拿回球，并一对一击败了尚帕尼，迎着德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 完美的篮下补防完成了一记精彩的终结。这一回合表明，只要文班亚马被拉离篮下，且由尚帕尼防守布伦森，尼克斯就占据了绝对优势。
紧接着的马刺进攻回合，集中体现了他们为何以及如何遭遇了这场史诗级的崩盘。在领先优势缩水到 7 分时，福克斯慢悠悠地把球运过半场，并示意尚帕尼和文班亚马过来给他做掩护。马刺花了极长时间才发起战术，在福克斯不知为何将文班亚马支开后，尚帕尼终于在进攻时间还剩 9 秒时上前掩护。这导致福克斯最后只能尝试一次后撤步中距离跳投，球砸筐而出，文班亚马将球拨出了界外。目前尚不清楚福克斯是否想为对侧创造某种大对角传球的机会，但他当时完全是在孤军奋战，其他队友根本不清楚战术意图。
这种脱节且节奏混乱的进攻彻底葬送了马刺。他们陷入了在进攻早期转换中滥投三分的怪圈，并且全部打铁；而当他们试图慢下来时，又无法在空间落位上达成默契。在比赛还剩 2 分 45 秒时，福克斯的单打三分出手展现了马刺球员有多么疲惫，以及他们是多么地失去了章法。当他在 2 分 06 秒与文班亚马打挡拆，而文班亚马甚至没有看他、没有做好接球准备时，马刺的进攻已经从糟糕彻底走向了瘫痪。
在纽约逆转的过程中，马刺对布伦森的持球施压逐渐减弱，尼克斯得以更轻松地执行战术。马刺试图让文班亚马继续担任弱侧底线协防人，去盯防对侧底角的射手，而尼克斯则设计战术，故意将文班亚马拉上来参与挡拆防守。马刺曾试图通过临时包夹来让文班亚马从防守布伦森的 Veer 换防中解脱出来，但尼克斯的球权转移实在太快，马刺根本无法招架。
部分问题在于文班亚马采取了高位沉退，他会提到三分线，然后开始往后退。比赛后期，他开始上前延误，迫使布伦森减速，这似乎给马刺争取了在弱侧重新布置防守的时间。
但在比赛还剩 4 分 34 秒时，阿奴诺比投进的那记三分，集中体现了文班亚马承担的所有防守任务是如何消耗他的。看看文班亚马是如何飘回油漆区、完全失位的，他似乎完全忘记了阿奴诺比就在他身后。
OG 三分命中。分差只剩 4 分。
麦迪逊广场花园在 ABC 电视台的直播中陷入疯狂
pic.twitter.com/on1RsnJDoS
— NBA (@ NBA) June 11, 2026
文班亚马看到尚帕尼横穿球场去提前扑防哈特（为什么？），然后以慢动作转身去扑防此时已经处于大空位的阿奴诺比。虽然马刺在各方面都犯了错误，但这些错误共同导致了文班亚马体能的耗尽。
这也导致了在比赛还剩不到四分钟时的一次失误，当时何塞·阿尔瓦拉多 (Jose Alvarado) 突破时把尚帕尼远远甩在身后，而文班亚马只能眼睁睁看着他轻松上篮，因为他被拉出了油漆区，只能在阿奴诺比附近徘徊。如果文班亚马体能更充沛，他可能会积极在油漆区协防，并准备好飞速扑向阿奴诺比，甚至包夹阿尔瓦拉多以切断他的外传路线。但他当时实在太累了。
这一猜测在比赛还剩一分半钟时得到了证实，当时他甚至无法横穿油漆区去干扰布伦森一次关键的抛投。
又是杰伦·布伦森。
尼克斯迎来了他们本场比赛的首次领先
现在快锁定 ABC 电视台。 pic.twitter.com/SXzPmA6WbG
— NBA (@ NBA) June 11, 2026
马刺的防守在最后一分钟重新拉满，但另一端几次运气不佳的判罚和失误让他们付出了代价。文班亚马通过走上罚球线打破了进攻荒，但不知为何两罚全失。卡斯尔制造了哈特的犯规，NBA 官方的最后两分钟裁判报告也指出这本应是一次犯规，但裁判当时却判罚球出界，球权归属尼克斯。福克斯犯下了致命错误，他在比赛还剩 10 秒时试图上篮，而不是运球消耗时间等待对方犯规。
在尼克斯的绝杀球回合中，马刺主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 要求福克斯与文班亚马一起包夹布伦森，试图迫使他投丢绝杀球。然而，马刺遭遇了他们见过的最不走运的弹筐，阿奴诺比飞身而入，完成了或许是 NBA 历史上最伟大的补篮。在最后一个回合中，唐斯用手指蹭到了哈珀传给处于大空位的卡斯尔的边线球，否则卡斯尔几乎十拿九稳能将球放进，从而完成 NBA 历史上最重要的一次空中接力。
除了福克斯的失误外，马刺在最后一分钟的表现其实不错，但尼克斯通过拉开空间对他们造成的消耗，在更早的时候就已经击垮了他们。这个问题已经让马刺付出了三次代价，因为尼克斯的空间优势不可避免地成为了他们最大的武器。在第四战让文班亚马出场 44 分钟产生巨大反作用后，约翰逊应该在第五战中让他在替补席上多休息几分钟。他的替补卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 目前因病出战成疑。
如果科内特无法上场，约翰逊可能不会启用俾斯麦·比永博 (Bismack Biyombo)，而凯尔登·约翰逊和卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 在本系列赛中作为小球五号位并不可行。米奇·约翰逊必须做出一些艰难的决定，而且他可能没有比挑战文班亚马去开启那种只有历史级巨星才拥有的终极状态更好的解决方案了。
根据文班亚马的说法，马刺依然坚信着。
“每个人都这么想，每个人都心知肚明，”他说，“我们会做到的。”
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：How the Knicks wore down Wemby by spreading the floor in record Game 4 comeback
How the Knicks wore down Wemby by spreading the floor in record Game 4 comeback
SAN ANTONIO — The Spurs had a defensive formula that worked all year long. Victor Wembanyama would park himself by the rim, ball handlers would run the other way and San Antonio would win with its defense.
Karl-Anthony Towns presented the antidote. As the Spurs made their way to the NBA Finals, they didn’t face a team that could truly threaten them with a five-out lineup. The Oklahoma City Thunder were supposed to do that, then Chet Holmgren put up one of the worst series in recent memory.
Towns has posed the threat Holmgren couldn’t, and it’s the biggest reason the Knicks have a chance to clinch the title Saturday. The Spurs spent the second half of Game 4 fighting the tide to keep Wembanyama in his favored spot on defense. But New York presented so many challenges that made it untenable. That, combined with the Spurs’ horrendous offensive execution, allowed the Knicks to pull off the greatest comeback we’ve ever seen.
So how did it happen?
Typically, the Spurs have Wembanyama either guard the worst shooter on the floor or the big man, allowing him to stay near the paint. He has spent 79.6 partial possessions guarding Towns in this series, 45.2 on Mitchell Robinson, 39 on OG Anunoby and 35 on Josh Hart, per NBA Stats. Those stats may not include when Wembanyama is effectively in a zone and isn’t really marking anyone.
Wembanyama has spent 27.9 partial possessions on Jalen Brunson, often catching the Knicks’ star on a type of switch called a “Veer.” These moments shaped the game because of how it put the Spurs defense into rotation and how it wore down Wembanyama to take away his late-game offensive potency.
They happen when Wembanyama is dropping back on a screen, but Brunson gets downhill so fast that Wembanyama has to call for the switch and pick Brunson up. That will send someone like De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper off to guard Towns, which can either set off a series of switches to fix the cross-match or give Towns an advantage to go post-up or grab an offensive rebound.
The Knicks have been good at forcing these veers by running Brunson-Towns actions against the sideline with an empty corner. In theory, all of these veers for Wembanyama should help with his stamina a bit, since he doesn’t have to do as much cross-court sprinting and can settle into guarding one guy. But even in the first minute of the second half, Brunson crossed him up easily on a switch to get all the way into the paint and give Anunoby an open 3. Ironically, Wembanyama was the one sprinting to close out on Anunoby’s shot.
Trouble quietly reared its head a few minutes into the third quarter, when Wembanyama shut off a Mikel Bridges drive and confusion began to percolate. Bridges flowed up to the top of the arc for a handoff to Brunson, while Towns set a down screen at the free-throw line. The alarms went off when Wembanyama sat under Towns’ screen while Keldon Johnson, the defender actually guarding Towns, did the same. Brunson stepped into a wide-open 3 while Wembanyama pointed for Johnson to step up.
Suddenly, the Knicks had a solution.
When Robinson came back on the floor, Brunson started attacking Wembanyama in a deep drop. The Thunder tried this strategy too with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander but it worked more effectively for the Knicks because Brunson tends to seek separation for his midrange pull-up rather than to draw a foul against the Spurs’ astute defenders. When Wembanyama countered by guarding up on the action more and losing the ability to contain Robinson’s rolls, the Knicks stuck Fox’s man under the hoop so that the point guard was the backside rim protector. That ain’t gonna work.
Wembanyama said after Game 4 that the issues traced back to the third quarter and it was these coverage issues that were the root.
The Spurs’ zone defense stemmed the bleeding in the late third and early fourth quarters, but they went back to man-to-man entering crunch time with Wembanyama in the low-man spot. The Knicks put Anunoby, their best shooter and a good closeout attacker, in the opposite corner. The Spurs could’ve put Wembanyama on Hart and have him zone up the top of the paint instead, but mostly chose to keep him down by the baseline.
That gave the green light for Brunson to seek out a switch onto Julian Champagnie, who has been opponents’ primary crunch-time target throughout the playoffs. Champagnie’s defensive value comes from his hands on drives and his rebounding, but quick guards can take advantage of his footwork and beat him at the point of attack.
At the 5:35 mark, Castle and Champagnie were coming down the floor in transition, and Castle told Champagnie to guard Brunson. Perhaps this was essentially a pre-switch, hoping that Brunson would run a ball screen that could get Champagnie off him. Brunson gave it up to Towns, who couldn’t get past Wembanyama in an isolation. Brunson then got it back and beat Champagnie one-on-one for a great finish over Vassell’s perfect rotation at the rim. This play showed that as long as Wembanyama is pulled away from the rim and Champagnie is on Brunson, the Knicks had the advantage.
The Spurs offensive possession right after this epitomized why and how they pulled off the epic collapse. With the lead down to seven, Fox walked the ball up the floor and called for Champagnie and Webanyama to come screen for him. It took the Spurs forever to get the action going, with Champagnie finally screening with nine seconds on the clock after Fox sent Wembanyama away for some reason. It resulted in Fox taking a good stepback midrange jumper, which he bricked and Wembanyama tapped out of bounds. It’s unclear if Fox wanted to set up some sort of skip pass option to the opposite side, but he was on his own with nobody else sure of the plan.
This was the disjointed, mistimed offense that doomed the Spurs. They got stuck in a barrage of early-clock transition 3s that they all bricked, then couldn’t get their spacing on the same page when they slowed it down. Fox’s isolation 3 with 2:45 left showed just how exhausted the Spurs were and how much they lost their process. When he ran a ball screen with Wembanyama at the 2:06 mark and Wembanyama didn’t even look at him to receive the pass, the offense went from bad to broken.
Throughout New York’s comeback, the Spurs’ ball pressure on Brunson waned and the Knicks were able to execute more easily. The Spurs tried to keep Wembanyama assigned to the low-man role, marking the opposite corner shooter, and the Knicks designed their actions to bring Wembanyama up into pick-and-roll coverage. The Spurs tried to get Wembanyama out of the Brunson veers by temporarily double-teaming so he could release the coverage, but the Knicks swung the ball around too quickly for the Spurs to survive.
Part of the issue was that Wembanyama was in a high drop, where he would get to the 3-point line and then start moving backwards. Late in the game, he started stepping up to force Brunson to hit the brakes, which seemed to give the Spurs time to get sorted on the backside.
But the Anunoby 3 with 4:34 left epitomized how all of Wembanyama’s work was wearing him down. Just look at how Wembanyama floats back into the paint, way out of position, and appears to forget Anunoby is behind him.
OG FOR THREE. IT’S A 4-POINT GAME.
MSG IS GOING CRAZY ON ABC
— NBA (@ NBA) June 11, 2026
Wembanyama sees Champagnie sprinting across the court to pre-close out to Hart (why?) and turns around in slow-motion to close to the now wide-open Anunoby. While there were Spurs mistakes being made across the board, they contributed to Wembanyama losing steam.
It also led to a blunder with just under four minutes left when Jose Alvarado left Champagnie in the dust on a drive and Wembanyama could only watch the uncontested layup because he was pulled out of the paint to hover near Anunoby. If Wembanyama had more gas, he may have actively worked the paint and been ready to sprint out to Anunoby or even trap Alvarado to take away that kick-out pass. But he was just exhausted.
That was confirmed with a minute-and-a-half left when he couldn’t even rotate across the paint to contest a crucial Brunson floater.
JALEN BRUNSON AGAIN.
KNICKS HAVE THEIR FIRST LEAD OF THE GAME
GET TO ABC NOW. pic.twitter.com/SXzPmA6WbG
— NBA (@ NBA) June 11, 2026
The Spurs defense flipped the switch back on in the final minute, and there were several unfortunate breaks that cost them on the other end. Wembanyama broke the offensive freeze by getting to the line, then somehow bricked them both. Castle drew what the NBA’s Last-Two Minute report said should have been a foul on Hart, but the officials called out of bounds off Castle instead in the moment. Fox made his grave error by trying to lay it in with 10 seconds left instead of dribbling it out to get fouled.
On the Knicks’ game-winner, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson called for Fox to double-team Brunson, along with Wembanyama, to force the miss on the attempted game-winner. Then, the Spurs got the most unlucky bounce they’ll ever see when Anunoby flew in to pull off perhaps the greatest tip in NBA history. On the last play, Towns got a finger on Harper’s inbound to a wide-open Castle, who was a virtual lock to lay in what would’ve become the most significant alley-oop in NBA history.
The Spurs fared well in the closing minute, aside from Fox’s blunder, but the attrition from the Knicks offense spreading them out did them in well before then. It’s a problem that has cost the Spurs three times now, as the Knicks’ spacing inevitably becomes the biggest advantage. Johnson should get Wembanyama more minutes on the bench in Game 5 after it became clear that playing him 44 minutes in Game 4 backfired tremendously. His backup, Luke Kornet, is now questionable with an illness.
If Kornet can’t play, Johnson likely won’t put in Bismack Biyombo, and Keldon Johnson and Carter Bryant haven’t been viable as small fives in this series. Mitch Johnson has some difficult decisions to make, and may not have a better solution than to challenge Wembanyama to find that mode only the all-time greats have.
According to Wembanyama, the Spurs still believe.
“Everybody thinks, everybody knows,” he said. “We’re going to do it.”
By Jared Weiss, via The Athletic