By Jared Weiss / The Athletic, 2026-10-21 17:30:08
圣安东尼奥——这实在毫无乐趣可言。
想要剖析维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 为何会在揭幕战打出生涯最糟糕的投篮表现——仅仅13投1中，绝非三言两语能够说清。圣安东尼奥马刺在周二以104-116不敌俄克拉荷马城雷霆的原因有很多，这个比分甚至带有欺骗性，让人误以为马刺与雷霆尚有一战之力。
无论是抽丝剥茧分析他们新三后卫首发阵容的空间瑕疵，还是审视防守纪律性，马刺那一连串令人担忧的问题最终都归结于一个无法回避的核心。
“我觉得这对我来说显而易见。我需要回归去打我喜欢的篮球。现在的样子根本不是我喜欢的运动，”文班亚马说，“我没有理由犹豫不决，没有理由不去做自己。对我来说，事情就这么简单。只有享受比赛，我才能发挥出色。”
文班亚马在对阵雷霆的比赛中表现糟糕。他持球时犹豫不决，无球跑位时又频繁挡道。决策迟缓且杂乱无章，大空位三分球一次次弹框而出。以他的标准来看，防守端的敏锐度只能算勉强及格，毫无感染力。
这正是球队作茧自缚的症结所在：至少目前来看，这套全新的首发阵容毫无效果。
这并不令人震惊。马刺在季前赛虽偶有亮眼发挥，但看起来离成型还差得远。随后他们在揭幕战迎战这个时代最好的防守强队，结果场面极其惨淡。
“不管我们派上多少名后卫，他们今晚都打得很挣扎，”主教练米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 说道，“我们全队上下都表现得全方位低迷。”
马刺主动承担起了一项雄心勃勃的挑战：改变一套曾将他们带入总决赛的阵容。他们着眼的是更加长远的蓝图。
迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 实力过于出众，断然不能屈居替补。他们需要最大化他的出场时间，以增加击败雷霆这支劲旅的胜算。将他与斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 共同排进首发，就把拉开萎缩空间的重担全压在了文班亚马一人肩上。
他们主要依靠将防守压力转化为快攻反击速度，这种打法在本场比赛中屡试不爽。然而，当他们不得不一次又一次从篮网里捡球，目送谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) 命中中距离跳投时，根本就没有任何快攻机会可言。
他们的进攻运转存在一个根本性缺陷：文班亚马缺乏足够的投篮手感，无法让雷霆为收缩禁区付出代价。而这一软肋，恰恰被最了解他们的对手彻底暴露。
“我可能想得太多了，我觉得这对我来说是个机会，我真正该做的是放开包袱，”文班亚马说道，“我不需要做得更多，或许只需要少想一点。”
文班亚马在这个依赖“空中交通管制”的体系中显得格格不入。雷霆的防线在卡斯尔大部分无球时间内几乎完全放空他，甚至在他接球时也不会扑防。马刺球员要么互相挡道，要么一头扎进死胡同。
马刺与雷霆之间突然演变成了NBA最引人入胜的宿敌对决之一，就像两把飞速挥舞的重锤，彼此撕扯、碰撞和砸击。无论是福克斯对切特·霍姆格伦 (Chet Holmgren) 使出摔角般的抱摔，还是凯尔登·约翰逊 (Keldon Johnson) 面部遭受重击、颊骨被划开一道深达缝了三针的血口，这两队的交锋向来充斥着火药味与血性。
这两支球队对彼此的熟悉程度在整个联盟都属罕见。上赛季他们交手了整整12次。这绝非笔误，两队仿佛针对彼此打了一个微型赛季。他们对对手的每一个战术细节和习惯了如指掌。
马刺现在的问题在于他们还没真正看清自己。他们必须重新认识自我，重新摸索运转模式。他们是一支依靠防守和速度的球队，但当比赛节奏慢下来时，他们该如何发起进攻？如果文班亚马拿不到禁区深处的球，他又该以何种方式作为终结点发挥作用？
“我想说，我们目前的表现还不足以弄清这一切、弄清这个体系。在下定论之前，我们首先得打得正常，恢复到平时的状态，”文班亚马说，“至于哪一部分不正常？我觉得方方面面都不正常，每一处都出了点差错。”
上赛季他们慢慢找到了这些问题的答案。而这一次他们必须更快交出答卷，因为全联盟的对手都在紧盯着他们，绝不仅是眼前的宿敌。
“每次面对他们，都会是这种强度，”卡斯尔说道。
雷霆永远都会是检验他们的试金石。上赛季，马刺曾在12月的一段时间内完全压制雷霆，但为了挺进总决赛，最终依然不得不在俄克拉荷马城抢七，力克伤兵满营的雷霆。那是上赛季最终磨合成型的马刺版本。而现在，一切又是一次全新的推倒重来。马刺着眼于未来重塑自我，因为他们深知，自己绝不会停下脚步，雷霆同样不会。
“无论你在院子里种花还是植树，不是每天看过去都能看到成果，”约翰逊在赛前表示，“大家只需要给我们一点时间。”
“我可以向你们保证，”哈珀说道，“这套阵容未来一定会迎来更好的日子。”
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。
查看原文：Victor Wembanyama says 'this is not the sport I like' after rough loss to Thunder
Victor Wembanyama says ‘this is not the sport I like’ after rough loss to Thunder
SAN ANTONIO — This simply wasn’t fun.
It’s a layered endeavor trying to diagnose how Victor Wembanyama had the worst shooting performance of his career, going 1-of-13 on opening night. There are many reasons why the San Antonio Spurs fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-104 on Tuesday, a score that deceptively implies the Spurs were even remotely on the Thunder’s level.
Parsing through the spacing foibles of their new three-guard starting lineup, or their defensive discipline, the laundry list of concerns for the Spurs boils down to one unavoidable thing.
“I feel like it’s obvious for me. I need to go back to playing the basketball I like. This is not the sport I like right here,” Wembanyama said. “I got no reason to be hesitant, no reason to not be myself. For me, it’s as simple as that. I’m good when I have fun.”
Wembanyama was awful against the Thunder. He was uncertain on the ball and often in the way off it. Decisions were slow and haphazard. Wide-open 3s merely provided the rim a deep-tissue massage. Defensive acuity was passable by his standards, though not inspiring.
It was the root of the problem the team has brought onto itself: The new starting lineup doesn’t work, for now.
That’s not a shock. The Spurs had their moments in the preseason but looked like they were far from a finished product. Then they came out on opening night against the best defense of this era and looked dreadful.
“However many guards we played, they all struggled tonight,” coach Mitch Johnson said. “It was a pretty well-rounded poor effort by all of us.”
The Spurs have taken on the ambitious challenge of changing a lineup that brought them to the NBA Finals. They are looking at the big picture.
Dylan Harper is too good to come off the bench. They need to maximize his minutes to maximize their chances of beating this Thunder stalwart. Pairing him with Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox puts the onus on Wembanyama to figure out how to re-expand a shrunken floor.
They do that mostly through defensive pressure that turns into offensive speed. It worked plenty of times in this game. But when they are taking the ball out of the net after another Shai Gilgeous-Alexander mid-range jumper, there’s not a lot of fast to be breaking.
There was a fundamental flaw in how they operated: Wembanyama didn’t have the touch to make the Thunder pay for packing the paint. This discrepancy was exposed by the team that knows them best.
“I might be overthinking it, and I feel like it’s a chance for me that what I have to do is really let go,” Wembanyama said. “I don’t need to do more. I need to think less, probably.”
Wembanyama was in the way of a system that relies on air traffic control. The Thunder defense simply did not guard Castle for much of his time off the ball, not even rushing out when he’d catch it. The Spurs were running into each other or finding dead ends.
The Spurs and Thunder have suddenly turned into one of the NBA’s most enticing rivalries, two speedy bludgeons that carve, clash and smash. Whether it’s Fox suplexing Chet Holmgren or Keldon Johnson taking a shot to the face that carved a hole in his cheek deep enough to require three stitches, this series has always been a bit bloody.
These teams know each other intimately in a way that rarely exists in the NBA. They faced off 12 times last season. That’s not a typo. These two teams had their own mini-season against each other. They know every little nook and cranny of their opponent.
The Spurs’ problem right now is that they don’t quite know themselves yet. They have to relearn who they are and how they operate. They are a defense and speed team, but how do they get into offense when things slow down? What does Wembanyama offer as a finisher if he doesn’t have the ball in the paint?
“I would say we haven’t been good enough to find that out, to find out about this. We need to start by playing normal, being our normal selves before we can jump to conclusions,” Wembanyama said. “What part of it wasn’t normal? I think everything. A little bit of everything.”
They slowly answered those questions last season. They will need to answer them quicker this time around, because everyone in the league is coming for them. Not just their rivals.
“That will be there every time we see them,” Castle said.
The Thunder will always be their litmus test. Last year, the Spurs owned OKC over a stretch in December, then still had to go win Game 7 in Oklahoma City against an injured Thunder squad to make the finals. That was the fully formed version of last year’s Spurs. This is a new one, once again. The Spurs are reinventing themselves with an eye toward the future, knowing that they aren’t going away and neither are the Thunder.
“Whether you grow flowers or plant things in the yard to look at every day, there’s not (always) much to look at,” Johnson said before the game. “You just need to give us some time.”
“I can tell you,” Harper said. “There’s gonna be better days to come with that lineup.”
By Jared Weiss / The Athletic
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