NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 88 Malicious Foul! Collapses in Pain! [Please Subscribe!]

According to Kerr's usual practice, he would make the first round of substitutions about four or five minutes into the game.

The usual practice is to rest Green and Wiggins first, and then bring on substitute forwards such as Oubre and Anderson.

Then, around the seven or eight-minute mark of the first quarter, it was Curry and the other guards' turn to rest, while substitute guards like Bazemore and Poole would also come on.

If the situation requires, the starting forwards, who have already had a break, will return to the field to lead the transition.

However, due to the increased intensity of the playoffs, Kerr has also extended the rotation time of the starting lineup.

Starting from the later games of the first round, including the two games against the Clippers in the second round, he only started rotating the forwards after seven or eight minutes. Curry and Li Xingchen, the two starting guards, had to play the entire quarter and didn't have a chance to rest until the beginning of the second quarter.

The rotation time for substitutes will naturally be shortened accordingly.

Therefore, in the latter half of the first quarter, the Warriors' rotation lineup was: Curry, Li Xingchen, Bazemore, Anderson, and Looney.

The main reason Oubre wasn't brought on was because Curry was on the court, and Kerr still wanted to rely more on the Warriors' signature passing and cutting offense. Kerr would only bring Oubre on when Curry wasn't playing, switching to a one-on-one offense for the forwards.

The Clippers' rotation was equally impressive, with Kawhi Leonard playing the entire first quarter, although Paul George was temporarily benched for a rest.

Their current lineup on the court is: Beverley, Mann, Leonard, Batum, and Morris.

It's basically a well-balanced lineup in terms of both offense and defense.

Curry continued to dribble and attack, while Beverley began closely marking Curry from the moment he crossed half-court, relentlessly "biting" him.

Style of defense.

Li Xingchen had also been "bitten" by Beverley in the last game, so he knew what that felt like.

In short, it's uncomfortable, very uncomfortable.

Beneath the seemingly normal defensive actions lies a great deal of pushing and pulling, whether light or heavy.

While it may not knock someone down, it can effectively disrupt the ball handler and throw them off their rhythm.

Curry had no choice but to pass the ball to Li Xingchen for the time being.

Li Xingchen is currently facing Terence Mann as his defender.

Mann's defensive ability is acceptable, but it is by no means outstanding. Li Xingchen is quite confident that he can beat him in a one-on-one situation.

The Clippers were obviously aware of this, so Batum, who was on the same side, immediately moved towards Li Xingchen, ready to help defend at any time.

After all, Anderson is also a forward whose shooting is not consistent, while Li Xingchen's offensive threat is obviously much greater in comparison.

This is the Warriors' biggest problem with their roster: poor spacing.

Both Rooney and Green, two consistent rotation players, are spacing black holes. Oubre and Anderson on the bench are also inconsistent with their shooting. Even starting small forward Andrew Wiggins' three-point ability is not particularly outstanding.

The Warriors have all their shooting options concentrated in the backcourt, but Jordan Poole's defense is so poor that Kerr doesn't dare to use him much.

Furthermore, with Curry and Li Xingchen on the court, Poole simply wouldn't be able to play.

A three-defender formation is vulnerable to being exploited by the opponent simply because of its size disadvantage.

This means that it's common for the Warriors to have two and a half space black holes in their lineup on the court.

Only Curry's ability to create space, which is equivalent to two players, can barely keep the Warriors' offense going.

This situation only improved somewhat after they received three points of firepower support from Li Xingchen.

Without Li Xingchen, even if the Warriors had miraculously defeated the Grizzlies in the play-in tournament, they would never have been able to pass the Jazz's first-round test.

Facing a double-team from the Clippers, Li Xingchen calmly passed the ball to Anderson, who was open.

Although Anderson wasn't as good at shooting as Li Xingchen, he didn't hesitate when faced with a wide-open opportunity and decisively took a three-pointer.

In any case, his three-point shooting percentage in the regular season was over 40%.

Although the output was not high, and almost all of them came from wide-open three-point shots, it was not like Rooney's situation of completely "refusing to shoot".

Unfortunately, with a "clang," the ball missed.

To assess a player's three-point shooting ability, it's completely unreliable to only look at their shooting percentage.

Curry and Anderson's three-point shooting percentages this season are probably both in the 400s, not much different.

However, the former's shots are often made under various high-intensity defenses, or even double-teams, and there are also a lot of long-range three-pointers and buzzer-beating shots.

The latter, on the other hand, will only take action when they have a wide-open opportunity.

The difficulty and output of the two are completely different, so they cannot be judged by their accuracy alone.

It's normal for Anderson to miss that three-pointer. He's better at cutting to the basket on offense, and his ball movement and playmaking are also quite good. He's known as the "Little Draymond Green".

On the defensive end, his one-on-one defense is not outstanding, but his awareness of help defense is quite good. Most importantly, he is very hardworking and aggressive in fighting for rebounds and loose balls, which is an important reason why Kerr likes to use him.

However, his consistently positive performance unexpectedly led to bitter consequences in this match.

There were about two minutes left in the first quarter.

During a Clippers offensive possession, Paul George, who had just returned from a rest, successfully targeted Curry with an off-ball pick-and-roll with Batum.

George immediately asked Reggie Jackson for the ball, and Reggie, without much thought, casually passed it to him.

Unexpectedly, Curry immediately anticipated his passing route, leaped out, and intercepted the ball!

The idea that Curry's defense is bad is ultimately a misconception.

In reality, his defense may not be top-tier, but it is definitely among the best in his position.

It's just that opponents often target him in order to wear him down, which gives fans the misconception that he's a bad defender.

But with an average of 1.8 steals per game this season, how could his defense be bad?

Seeing Curry successfully intercept the ball, Toscano Anderson was the first to react and quickly started a fast break.

He always seizes such opportunities.

Beverley, who had just switched onto the defense, was also at the top of the key, making him the Clippers' fastest player to get back on defense.

Curry didn't rush to pass the ball out; he knew Anderson's ball handling wasn't that strong.

Instead of letting him dribble down the court and break through defenses, increasing the risk of him being caught by Beverley and making mistakes, it's better to let him run freely and then feed him the ball when he's very close to the basket.

For the average ball handler, a long pass across half the court like this from the quarterback position is actually quite difficult. If you accidentally pass it too far, it's common to turn a fast break into a turnover and the ball goes out of bounds. Draymond Green has done this quite often.

However, Curry is a top-tier point guard. As long as his attention is still focused on the court, he will definitely be able to feed the ball to Anderson with absolute precision.

And that is indeed the case.

Anderson received a long pass from Curry inside the free-throw line, took two big steps, and was ready to take off and deliver a thunderous dunk!

Beverley, who was chasing him, was still behind him, and it seemed that it was impossible for him to form any effective defensive interference.

However, just when everyone thought that the fast break dunk by Curry and Anderson was about to be completed, an unexpected change occurred!

Beverley, who was originally a step behind, suddenly lunged forward as Anderson jumped, grabbed Anderson's waist, and pulled him down from mid-air!

Poor Anderson lost his balance in mid-air, the basketball slipped from his hands, and he crashed heavily to the ground.

Instead of immediately standing up to question Beverley about the malicious foul, he collapsed to the ground, clutching his elbow in obvious pain!