NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 14's mission is progressing steadily, and Mitchell's return is confirmed!

In the live stream, many viewers were still complaining that Snyder surrendered too early.

After all, there was still almost half a quarter left, and the score difference should still be within reach.

"Why did they let the game end so early? I wanted to watch Xingchen play a little longer."

"That's right. In the last game, our Xingchen brother turned the tide by thirteen points in forty seconds. He can turn the tide by more than a hundred points in six minutes."

"The main problem is that the Jazz didn't have Mitchell this game, so their offense couldn't get going, and they couldn't break down the Warriors' small-ball lineup, so there really wasn't much hope of them catching up."

"Yes, Sneijder made the right decision. Letting go of this game without Mitchell in time conserves the players' energy and prevents injuries. Once Mitchell returns, that's when the real battle will begin!"

……

After the game entered garbage time, Li Xingchen's full stats for this match were finally finalized, almost filling the stat sheet.

Playing time: 23:56, 16 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, field goal percentage: 5/9, three-point percentage: 3/6, free throw percentage: 3/3, true shooting percentage: 77.5%, top-tier efficiency, and an astonishing plus-minus of +28, which is comparable to Curry's.

Of course, his teammates also performed well. Curry scored 30 points in three quarters on 17 shots, including seven three-pointers, maintaining his excellent form from winning the scoring title at the end of the season.

Wiggins, meanwhile, steadily scored 18 points, continuing to live up to his reputation as the "Golden State Mathematician."

While other teammates didn't score as many points, players like Green and Looney made significant contributions in areas such as defense and rebounding.

The Warriors' first playoff win was a testament to their united efforts. Everyone was determined to capitalize on Mitchell's absence and secure a victory on the road to ease the pressure of the rest of the series.

Ultimately, the substitutes at the end of both teams' benches used up the remaining time, and the score remained 118-100.

The Golden State Warriors have officially secured their first playoff win of the season, taking a 1-0 lead in the series.

With Mitchell absent, the outcome of this game was largely predicted by most people. However, the Warriors' ability to win by such a large margin in just three quarters surprised many.

The reason for this is that when analyzing the roster before, many people still did not consider that the Warriors had Li Xingchen, a high-quality spacing point who emerged out of nowhere.

Therefore, during the post-game interviews, many reporters focused on Li Xingchen, mentioning him in both interviews with head coach Kerr and team leader Curry.

Kerr: "Yes, Lee played exceptionally well. His scoring ability and defensive contributions are exactly what our team needs right now, and I fully believe he will continue to contribute even more on the court."

Curry: "Oh, he's just so good! It's very comfortable playing with him, we have great chemistry. What you don't know is that he also trains incredibly hard, and he deserves all of this."

Although Kerr didn't say it explicitly, the implication was that he wanted to continue increasing Li Xingchen's playing time in the upcoming games.

When asked if they felt they had a chance to contend for the championship after the team unexpectedly discovered such an excellent two-way player at the end of the season, Kerr and Curry wisely avoided giving a direct answer, simply stating that their current task is to try their best to win every game, and that the championship is the goal that everyone is pursuing, and they will continue to work hard for it.

As for Li Xingchen, the reporter asked him a lot of questions, but he still attributed the main credit to the coach and teammates, just like last time. When it came to himself, he simply said, "I will continue to work hard."

……

Time quickly moved to the next day.

The schedule for the first few games of the first round of the playoffs is not very tight. The first game is on the evening of May 23, the second game is on May 26, and the third game, which is back at the Golden State Warriors' home court, is on May 29, with two days of rest in between.

However, because they are playing consecutive away games, even with two days of rest, the team will not return to their home stadium and will have to stay in Salt Lake City.

The training volume will also be reduced accordingly, partly because there are not good training conditions when playing away games, and partly because we need to maintain good physical fitness and be in the best condition for the next game.

Therefore, the day after Game 1, the team only had a simple recovery training session in the morning, mainly consisting of light shooting drills and stretching.

What's night on the other side of the Pacific is daytime back home. After a day of buzz, Li Xingchen's performance in the playoffs has once again spread across the entire internet.

Da Shi, who only knows about traffic but not basketball, gave Li Xingchen extremely high praise. He used terms he has used to describe countless players, such as "all-around offensive and defensive" and "a high-quality piece of the championship puzzle," to describe Li Xingchen as well. This surprised netizens, who asked him to stop jinxing Li Xingchen in the comments section.

Well-known Durant critic and basketball commentator Xu Jingyu has found a new angle to criticize Durant, and is spreading the word on his Yushuo Sports Channel that anyone on the Warriors can replace Durant's role, such as Wiggins and Li Xingchen.

Of course, there are also many relatively professional bloggers who have provided some data analysis and tactical analysis related to the first game between the Warriors and the Jazz, and they all praised Li Xingchen highly.

In reality, a player like Li Xingchen, who possesses both offensive and defensive capabilities, often has a strategic value on the field that is far more significant than the statistics can reflect.

And this information will only be known to those who have truly watched the game carefully and done the analysis—and of course, your opponent will also know it.

At that moment, the Jazz coaching staff was having a headache because of Li Xingchen's presence, racking their brains for a solution.

Meanwhile, after finishing the team's training, Li Xingchen continued to do extra training on his own in the afternoon and evening. After all, as long as it wasn't high-intensity competitive training, just shooting practice didn't consume much energy.

Unfortunately, the time and conditions for training were not as good as at home when playing away, so by the end of the day, Li Xingchen's training progress had only increased by 10%, reaching 35%.

On May 24, the team still only scheduled two hours of team tactical training in the morning, and Li Xingchen had extra individual training time in the afternoon.

In the evening, the coaching staff conducted a video analysis with all the players. Their core tactical strategy remains to use pitchers to target Gobert. Other details will be adjusted based on the lineup changes and the players' condition on the court.

However, the core strategy of the entire series is undoubtedly very favorable to Li Xingchen. The team needs to bring in more shooters and play more small-ball lineups, so he, a standard 3D wing, will definitely get more playing time.

Another day has come to an end, and Li Xingchen's task progress is about the same as yesterday, with the overall task progress reaching approximately 45%.

The date is May 25th, the day of the match.

The team conducted shooting practice at the opponent's home court in the morning as usual, and Li Xingchen's task progress also increased to 50%.

But in the afternoon, they received very bad news.

That is, the opponent's key offensive player, Donovan Mitchell, is confirmed to return for Game 2 of the series tonight!