NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 51: Cole devises tactics for Lee, and Stars delivers another game-winning shot!

It's a pity this is the Jazz's home court; otherwise, Li Xingchen's incredible layup would have definitely earned him MVP cheers from the home fans.

Even on the road, if the Jazz don't play well today, the away fans might turn around and cheer for them.

Who wouldn't be amazed by such a brilliant goal?

Of course, fans watching the live broadcast on the big screen in San Francisco, as well as Li Xingchen's fans in China, will also cheer for him.

It's just a pity he couldn't hear it at the scene.

"No, buddy... (shrimp bends over to look at the screen.jpg)"

"What did I just see? An incredible hang time and a reverse layup? Tell me, did I just see the god of basketball?"

"I was thinking the same thing, isn't that Steve Jobs' signature move?"

"How many more surprises can Xiao Li bring us? His footwork and ball control are so skillful when he drives to the basket, and he even pulls off a layup at the limit..."

……

The fans' comments kept pouring in, because they hadn't even finished expressing their feelings about the previous offensive possession before they had new material to share in the next defensive possession.

The Jazz's offense was still initiated by veteran point guard Conley.

They clearly wanted to launch a fast break, whether it was a two-pointer or a three-pointer, so that when the Warriors' next possession timer expired, there would still be some time left in the game, giving them the chance for the final shot.

After all, they are still leading by one point. No matter how the offensive and defensive rounds between the two sides go, as long as they have the final attack in their hands, they will still be able to maintain a certain degree of initiative.

Li Xingchen was still responsible for guarding Mitchell, while Curry faced Conley with the ball, so the pressure was immense.

After some deliberation, Conley felt that Mitchell couldn't get a shot off against Li Xingchen right now. To create an opportunity, he would have to set a screen and force the opponent to switch. Other non-primary scorers could only shoot open three-pointers, which would rely more on tactical movement. In short, it would all take a bit of time.

Therefore, based on the team's idea of ​​launching a fast break, Conley ultimately decided to ignore everyone and just spread the floor. He then faced Curry's defense and made a tough three-pointer!

Anyway, we're all over 1.8 meters tall, short guards, and some are even 33 years old, so who's afraid of whom?

We're going to pluck it off your head!

Curry didn't lose his position at all, jumping with perfect timing, giving Conley enough interference.

With a loud "bang," the shot missed.

The Jazz missed their shot, which was a golden opportunity for the Warriors to take the lead. If they could just grab the rebound and call a timeout, they would have a chance to set up a complete offensive play, greatly increasing their chances of a game-winning shot.

However, Green made a crucial mistake in the play. He failed to position himself properly against Gobert, allowing the opponent to grab the offensive rebound right in front of him!

Fortunately, Green reacted relatively quickly. Seeing that he couldn't get the rebound, he didn't foul rashly. Instead, he immediately stepped forward and blocked Gobert's body, preventing him from easily putting the ball back in.

Because Conley is a three-point shooter, the rebound didn't land very close to the basket, nor did it fall within Gobert's comfort zone for a putback.

Seeing that Green had blocked his position again and he couldn't move forward an inch, Gobert gave up on the option of a direct putback and instead decided to pass the ball back to Conley on the outside to reorganize the offense, which he thought would have a higher success rate.

At this moment, Curry's position was already slightly back, because he had just assumed that Green would definitely be able to secure the defensive rebound, and he was preparing to quickly advance the ball up the court for a fast break.

Therefore, as Conley's counterpart, his current position is unable to pose any threat to Gobert's pass to Conley.

That's why Gobert confidently threw the ball to Conley.

However, in the blink of an eye, another figure flashed by, and before anyone could react, the referee's whistle blew!

That wasn't a whistle to call a foul, but a whistle to suspend the action.

Upon closer inspection, the ball had actually fallen into Li Xingchen's hands!

Not to mention the fans watching the game, even many of the players on the field were still not quite sure what had happened!

But that's no longer important, because Li Xingchen made another crucial steal in this extremely critical round, which is an indisputable fact!

Curry and Wiggins both ran over and bumped shoulders hard with Li Xingchen to celebrate regaining possession of the ball.

The Warriors' bench players took off once again!

By now, apart from Poole, who might still feel a little resentful, all the other players on the Warriors' bench have long since come to admire Li Xingchen immensely.

Li Xingchen's competitive level is clearly no longer on the same level as theirs, so they have no reason to envy, be jealous of, or hate him. Instead, they should regard Li Xingchen as an inspirational role model to learn from.

Even if you start with a two-way contract in the Development League, you will still have the opportunity to shine in the playoffs and achieve great success one day!

In the live broadcast room, many fans were still in shock, wondering what had just happened in the blink of an eye on the field.

It wasn't until the director showed a slow-motion replay that the problem was resolved.

Li Xingchen actually predicted the direction of Gobert's pass the instant he raised his hand to pass the ball, which is why he was able to dive out and intercept the ball before anyone could react!

"Dude, are you really using cheats? Isn't this a bit too much?"

"I don't understand! What if Gobert was going to pass to Mitchell? That would be a disaster! He left Mitchell wide open!"

"All I can say is that Ah Chen dared to leave his defender behind to try and steal the ball, so he must have been confident. I just don't know how he anticipated that."

Why do I feel like Li is possessed by the god of basketball when it comes to crucial moments?

……

As everyone can see, Li Xingchen was able to reach the passing lane and intercept the ball in advance only after leaving Mitchell behind.

The reason he was able to anticipate this was naturally because the system had given him a clear hint...

Back then, he really didn't expect that the scoring element of "always getting two blocks in a single game" could help him achieve any high-level maneuvers.

He only had two blocks in a game. Isn't that something he could do often with his normal skill level?

Unexpectedly, when the game reached a critical moment, the system not only enabled him to display his prowess on the offensive end, but also allowed him to shine on the defensive end.

Frankly speaking, his behavior of completely abandoning his opponent to try to steal the ball is undoubtedly extremely risky.

If this gives Mitchell an open shot and he makes it, then he'll have to take full responsibility for the loss, even more than the rebound Green just lost.

But in competitive sports, it's always a winner-takes-all story.

He lost his gamble; that means he missed a crucial moment, making him a culprit for the team.

He won his gamble; that crucial steal made him a hero for the team!

Moreover, he signaled a timeout almost the instant he gained control of the ball, which is enough to prove that he was confident in his ability to steal the ball.

Although neither the players nor the fans on either side could quite understand where his confidence came from.

Could it be that this kid from the East is also proficient in psychology or something, and can accurately judge who Gobert wants to pass the ball to next just from a glance or gesture?

The fans off the field can discuss and speculate about this, but the players on the field must immediately shift their focus to the next round.

Because the game is not over yet.

After the last timeout, there were one minute and six seconds left in the game.

The offensive possession that saw Li Xingchen make a spectacular reverse layup took about twenty seconds; Conley's half-court three-point attempt missed, Gobert grabbed the offensive rebound but then committed a turnover which was stolen by Li Xingchen, and the whole process also took about twenty seconds.

Therefore, there are now 25.8 seconds left in the game.

At this moment, the Warriors have two options. One is to run down the clock and take a shot at the last second. If that shot goes in, it will basically kill the game, because the Jazz will have almost no time to come back and win.

The downside is that if you miss, you'll also be sentenced to death.

Another option is to not rush the game. After executing an offensive play in ten or so seconds, if the shot misses, you can foul the Jazz to get a second chance to tie or win the game.

However, if it hits, it will also give the opponent enough time to try a final counter-attack.

Cole hesitated for a moment, then finally made his decision: "Guys, let's run down the clock. We shouldn't put our fate in other people's hands. We win if we score, we lose if we miss, there's no question about it!"

"The opponent still has a timeout left, and if they have time, their chances of winning the game are quite good; while we don't have any timeouts left. Even if we can still foul, we can only inbound the ball from the backcourt, and our hope of winning the game a second time is very slim."

Everyone understands these principles, but Kerr still has to say them, and he can also take the opportunity to encourage his players.

However, to everyone's surprise, in the final and most crucial game-winning possession, Kerr did not draw the offensive play for Curry, but instead drew it for Li Xingchen!

"Li, I really didn't realize before that you were so skilled at dribbling and breaking through defenses."

"This time, let's use this to catch them off guard!"

Kerr gestured to the tactical board, explaining his game-winning strategy in detail.

As Li Xingchen listened, her eyes grew brighter and brighter.

This offensive tactic was exactly the same as the system's prompts to him.

That old codger Cole actually has some skills!

Although it seems to work sometimes and not at all.

But today, it happens to be that time of the spirit!

……

The timeout ended, and the players quickly returned to the court.

Just like in previous crucial rounds, the Jazz brought in Ingles to chase Li Xingchen, instead of letting Bojan play, which was expected.

The ball was inbounded, and Curry held it with his center of gravity low, dribbling steadily beyond the three-point line.

Everyone could see that the Warriors were trying to run down the clock, but the "thump thump thump" of the basketball hitting the floor still struck Royce O'Neal's heart like a heavy hammer, making him extremely uneasy.

There's no way around it, Curry's offensive threat is just too strong. You never know when he'll suddenly raise his hand and launch an arrow that pierces through the clouds.

After about ten seconds, the Warriors players finally got moving.

First, Curry and Li Xingchen set a cross screen at the top of the arc, followed by a fake handoff pass, leading everyone on the Jazz team to believe that Curry would take the shot through the gap created by Li Xingchen's screen.

As expected, Ingles instinctively helped defend Curry, but he didn't stray too far from Li Xingchen, maintaining a distance that allowed him to quickly return to his position.

Then Curry faked a shot and passed the ball to Li Xingchen. Ingles hurriedly turned around and lunged, but made the same mistake as Royce O'Neal in the previous possession.

That is, everyone thought Li Xingchen was an outside three-point shooter, but he chose to drive to the basket in the two most crucial possessions!

But Jazz head coach Snyder is no pushover either. He had actually prepared a contingency plan for this situation, which was to have Mitchell leave Wiggins to help defend Li Xingchen.

Based on the experience of these few games, Li Xingchen is indeed a more dangerous offensive player than Wiggins, especially in crucial moments!

It must be said that Snyder's preparations were actually quite thorough.

However, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr still came out on top today.

Because he also anticipated Snyder's prediction and arranged for Green to set a seemingly pointless off-ball screen for Wiggins near the right baseline.

But it was precisely this seemingly nonsensical off-ball screen that perfectly blocked Mitchell's help defense route!

Although he only blocked it for a split second, that single moment was enough to deprive Mitchell of a favorable defensive position to stop Li Xingchen's breakthrough.

Finally, Li Xingchen brushed past Ingles' right hand as he flew up, and dodged Mitchell's belated left hand, breaking through both opponents in succession with the help of his teammates.

They successfully reached the mid-range elbow area, a position that Gobert's defensive range just couldn't cover.

Ingles, Mitchell, and Gobert, one on the left, one on the right, and one in front, form an equilateral triangle.

And Li Xingchen is at the center of this equilateral triangle.

A sudden stop, a pull-up jumper, and the shot goes off!

The three people surrounding him felt as if they were inches away from him.

But no one could reach him!

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I got carried away with writing, so here's a 4,000-word chapter!

Your Majesty, I beg you to read this every day; your humble servant will be eternally grateful!