NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 24 Mitchell hits a three-pointer, Li Xingchen responds with a pull-up jumper!

The game continues, and the Warriors have possession of the ball.

Curry dribbled the ball across half-court and then passed it to Green to orchestrate the offense.

As soon as Li Xingchen saw Curry's positioning, he immediately understood which tactic Curry wanted to execute.

It's still the same old cross screen between the two guards.

This tactic is very powerful when both guards pose a significant shooting threat. During the baseline cross screen by the two guards, both sides' defenders will be blocked to some extent. In this process, whether the chase defense can keep up and whether the switch defense will be chaotic are all unknowns.

As long as the opponent's defense shows even the slightest weakness, such as a defender being slow to catch up due to a screen, or a communication problem during a switch, resulting in two defenders chasing the same person, then a shooting opportunity will arise.

Previously, this was one of the tactics that Curry and Thompson used most often on the court. It was often successful, with a very high scoring efficiency per possession. Both of them were also extremely good at three-point shooting, so their scoring explosiveness was also very strong. The nickname "Splash Brothers" was well-deserved.

It's actually the same now, except that the person cooperating with Curry in this tactic has become Li Xingchen.

However, from the first cross screen play against Curry in this game, Li Xingchen felt the change in the opponent's defensive intensity.

In the first two games, the Jazz's defense against him seemed to be loose at first and then tight later. It was probably because they didn't know him well enough, so they didn't give him enough defensive respect from the start. It wasn't until he scored a few possessions that they began to pay more attention to his offense and invest more defensive resources in him.

However, in this third game, he immediately felt the intensity of the opponent's defense. He did not get any open looks when crossing the baseline with Curry. The opponent firmly persisted in one-on-one defense, neither double-teaming Curry nor delaying him, nor switching on defense, determined to maintain one-on-one defense.

This is treating Li Xingchen as a pitcher on par with Curry!

This kind of baseline cross screen tactic is usually used to draw the opponent's defensive attention with Curry's shooting threat, thereby helping another shooter get an open shot or a chance to cut to the basket.

However, now that the opponent insists on one-on-one defense without switching, and Gobert is always guarding the paint, there are basically no such opportunities.

On the other hand, Curry will not encounter double teams or much help defense interference, which will give him better space to play one-on-one.

So the next test will be his ability to overcome individual defenses when facing one-on-one situations.

A star player is one who can still score points through individual skill even when the team's tactics fail.

Judging from the defensive attitude shown by the Jazz in this game, they seem to want to give up double-teaming Curry and shutting down the rest of the Warriors, letting Curry go one-on-one to see if he can defeat a team by himself!

If he really manages to defeat us all by himself, then there's nothing we can do but accept it.

Curry naturally saw through the opponent's intentions, and when he realized that his teammates wouldn't have any good opportunities, he had to take the shot himself.

Even if he's not shooting well today, he still has to take more shots; it's his responsibility as a superstar and the team's leader.

As the team leader, even if you have a bad shooting night and only make three out of thirty shots, you should take the blame and fall gracefully. But if you don't dare to take any shots in a crucial game and only take a handful of shots, then you will be called a "softie" by the fans.

Curry clearly belongs to the former category.

Unfortunately, Curry's shooting touch was off today.

After Li Xingchen entered the game, Curry faced much less defensive pressure and had several decent shooting opportunities thanks to Draymond Green's screens. However, Curry only made one of his next four shots, resulting in a dismal 1-for-6 shooting percentage for the entire game.

The Warriors were thus further outpaced, quickly falling to 8:20.

After seven and a half minutes, the team had only scored eight points. Such offensive efficiency would be absolutely unacceptable in today's world, and it would be impossible to win.

Curry was substituted by Kerr for a rest. His performance today was clearly not up to par, so Kerr brought forward his rest time a little earlier.

Just like in the previous game, after Curry left the court, the team's tactical focus shifted to Li Xingchen.

However, he wasn't entirely confident, because during the few minutes Curry was on the court, he had also attempted two three-pointers, both of which missed.

Although the space for those two shots wasn't particularly good, it did reflect to some extent that his shooting touch wasn't great today.

The Jazz had possession of the ball at this moment because Bazemore had just missed a three-pointer, the long rebound had collapsed, and Wiggins tried to grab the offensive rebound but failed.

The consequence of this was that because he couldn't get back on defense in time, Mitchell, who was guarding him, almost got an open shot opportunity and hit a three-pointer that went straight through the Warriors' basket!

Since Kerr had just called a timeout, it wasn't appropriate to call another one now; the players had to make their own adjustments on the court.

As for Li Xingchen, it seems that the system's passive ability was automatically triggered because he hadn't scored any points in five minutes.

The best shooting position and the most suitable shooting angle automatically appeared in his mind.

He's sure to make his next shot!

The confidence that had been slightly shaken by two consecutive missed throws was instantly restored.

Confidence is often a pitcher's most powerful weapon.

Once past half-court, he immediately took possession of the ball.

He waved his hand, indicating that his teammates did not need to cover for him and should all spread out.

He no longer names names, nor does he need the opponent to switch defenses to create mismatches for him.

Right now, he's being guarded by the opposing team's star shooting guard, Mitchell, who just hit a three-pointer.

Mitchell is at a disadvantage when facing tall forwards due to his lack of height, and is easily mismatched, but Gobert's rim protection largely makes up for his shortcomings.

However, if we only consider perimeter defense, Mitchell actually does a pretty good job. He is physically strong enough, has good lateral movement speed, and has a keen sense for steals, averaging more than one steal per game, making him a qualified perimeter defender.

Unfortunately, Li Xingchen doesn't care who's in front of him now. His confidence has returned, and even if it's the DPOY in front of him, he'll still fight without hesitation.

What's more, it was Mitchell's pull-up three-pointer that just silenced the Warriors' home crowd, and he had to respond directly!

The best response would be to simply ignore Mitchell's defense.

Without losing his position at all, Li Xingchen pulled up for a shot.

Mitchell jumped up to interfere, but couldn't reach the opponent's height, and could only watch helplessly as Li Xingchen flicked his wrist to strike.

—Although he didn't touch the ball, he didn't lose his position. Even just dartd in front of Li Xingchen, it could still have a disruptive effect.

So overall, Li Xingchen's shot wasn't a good opportunity, and Mitchell defended well. Such an unreasonable shot is very likely to miss and will affect the team's overall morale.

Unfortunately, the sound of the rim slamming against the basket that Mitchell was hoping for never came.

Instead, there was a "swish" sound, the sound of the basketball going through the net!