NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 26: Unstoppable Three-Point Barrage, Confident Turnaround, a True Man!

As he waited for the ball to fall, countless scenes flashed through Royce O'Neal's mind as he tried to recall where he had seen this ball before.

He quickly remembered.

Just recently at the team's video analysis meeting.

Recently, the player they've been focusing on the most is Li Xingchen. After all, the others are old acquaintances, whom they've studied countless times. Only Li Xingchen keeps bringing them surprises, or perhaps shocks.

There is very little video footage of Li Xingchen's matches. There are some earlier matches or records from the Development League, which can be used as a reference, but the level he showed seems to be quite different from his current level.

Therefore, in the past few days, their analysis has focused on reviewing the details of Li Xingchen's last three matches.

I remembered.

A week ago, in the final forty seconds of the Warriors vs. Grizzlies play-in game.

Li Xingchen's five legendary three-pointers, the third of which seemed to be shot exactly the same as the one just now.

At that time, Li Xingchen was also matched up against a defensive elite, Melton.

Even though he had defended perfectly, leaving almost no room for attack, Li Xingchen managed to create a sliver of space by using extreme hang time and leaning back in mid-air, and then launched his attack with a higher arc.

Such a shot arc seemed to have no chance of hitting, but Li Xingchen somehow managed to hit it that day.

What about this time?

O'Neal turned his head, and his response was the same as his response to Mitchell: a "swish" as the basketball went through the hoop.

Another one in!

It's in again!!!

O'Neal turned around again, looked at Li Xingchen who had fallen to the ground due to losing his balance, and reached out to help him up.

Then, with a serious expression, he asked, "Bro, are you cheating?"

Li Xingchen smiled but didn't say anything.

The domestic live-streaming rooms were in an uproar once again.

"Holy crap, Ah Chen is amazing!"

"What kind of incredible shot was that? How could it go in with such a high arc?"

"Did Li steal Curry's shooting bag today?"

"It's not closed, it's definitely not closed, that's an exaggeration."

On the field, Li Xingchen looked at the score on the substitute bench.

The score is currently 16-26, with the Warriors still trailing by 10 points. This is mainly because the hole they dug themselves in the early stages was too big, and Royce O'Neal just made a three-pointer, so Li Xingchen is simply paying back.

This was yet another very strong response.

He turned his gaze away from the bench, expecting Jazz coach Snyder to call another timeout, but surprisingly he held back.

That makes sense. The reason why Li Xingchen stopped the game in the first two matches was mainly because we needed to specifically set up a defense for Li Xingchen.

However, from the very beginning of the game, the Jazz team put a lot of pressure on Li Xingchen defensively. They even sent their strongest defender to block Li Xingchen in the last possession, but his three-pointer still went in.

Since there was no timeout, Li Xingchen quickly returned his attention to the court.

The Jazz's offensive focus this time wasn't on Li Xingchen's matchup. It might be because Li Xingchen had just blocked Clarkson's shot, so his other Jazz teammates didn't trust him and didn't pass the ball to him.

Fortunately, after Li Xingchen and Wiggins scored consecutive baskets, the Warriors' morale soared, and everyone played very aggressively in defense and hustle.

Ultimately, with Wiggins and Li Xingchen's perimeter defense and Draymond Green's help defense under the basket, the Jazz were almost forced into another 24-second violation, but Conley's last-second shot missed.

Turning back, after Damian Lee dribbled past half-court, he passed the ball to Li Xingchen without thinking, and then ran to the corner.

Wiggins moved to the other side to create space, and even Draymond Green ran to the basket to contest the rebound. Clearly, after those two possessions, everyone was completely convinced of Li Xingchen's hot hand today and decided to just let him play one-on-one.

After all, he had just made two consecutive three-pointers while dribbling, one of which was against Royce O'Neal, one of the opponent's top defenders!

What's even more outrageous is that the Jazz seemed determined not to let Li Xingchen continue to score, and actually chose to leave the relatively poor shooter Toscano Anderson open, while Mitchell and O'Neal started to double-team Li Xingchen near the three-point line!

It's important to understand that the Jazz's strategy today was to resolutely avoid double-teaming, stick to one-on-one defense, allow Curry to play one-on-one, and try to stifle the offense of other players. As it turned out, Curry was having a bad day, and the Jazz's strategy was very successful.

Unexpectedly, he wasn't killed by Curry in the first half, but he's going to be killed by Li Xingchen in the second half!

Does this mean the Warriors' shooting kit will never be lost, but only moved?

However, in order to stop Li Xingchen's scoring momentum, and also because the Warriors' lineup on the court at this time did have two non-space players, the Jazz resolutely decided to double-team Li Xingchen from the three-point line to see how he could score!

Seeing the two people rushing towards him, Li Xingchen's lips curled up again.

Is this what it feels like to be Curry?

It felt really satisfying when two people ran up to the three-point line to double-team me.

This time, the system didn't give Li Xingchen any further hints. After all, scoring six points in the first quarter was already above average.

But he remained confident. He could feel that his two previous shots had warmed up his touch, and now he was in excellent form.

Why do we practice making consecutive three-pointers during shooting drills? Why do we have timed multi-point shooting drills and one-minute extreme running shooting drills? Isn't it all to train the consistency of our shooting touch? Isn't it all for this moment?

Facing the two opponents who were double-teaming him, Li Xingchen did not choose to continue advancing. Instead, before they could surround him, he launched a super long-range three-pointer from a distance of two steps from the three-point line!

After releasing the ball, before it even hit the ground, Li Xingchen confidently turned around, patted his chest, and then pointed one finger to the sky, preparing to return to defend the backcourt.

He turned and hit a three-pointer, celebrating in advance – this could be seen as a tribute to Curry.

A real man never looks back at an explosion behind him.

Of course, not everyone can imitate this. For example, Poole once tried to imitate Curry's show-off behavior, but ended up missing the mark and making a complete disaster.

Lakers legend Nick Young also did something similar.

However, Li Xingchen was incredibly confident this time. His intuition had been exceptionally accurate lately, especially since it was the shooting drill he had been practicing the most these past few days. Even if he wasn't absolutely certain before shooting, the feeling after he released the ball convinced him that he would definitely make the shot.

And just as he wished, within two seconds of turning around, he saw the home fans erupt in cheers once again!