NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 97 G3 Unlocked, New Skill Point Allocation Experiment! (4000 words combined)

Inside the team meeting room at the Warriors' home training facility.

After everyone had arrived and before officially starting the video analysis, the first thing Kerr did was to give Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins a thorough dressing-down.

After all, in the final moments of the game, with only a few seconds left, he ran off to celebrate his near-game-winning shot without confirming whether the opposing team had called a timeout, almost missing the opponent's fast break attack in the process.

This level of focus during the game definitely deserves a lot of criticism.

Both of them looked dejected and didn't refute, after all, they were indeed in the wrong.

After seriously emphasizing the importance of team discipline and game focus several times, Kerr finally let them off the hook and officially moved on to today's video analysis and tactical discussion.

"Although we have now taken a 2-0 lead away from home, this is an even better start than we expected."

"However, we still cannot let our guard down. After all, both of our wins were by last-minute victories, which shows that the gap in strength between us and our opponents is not that big."

"These two games could be our game-winning shots, but the next two games could be their game-winning shots against us! So, we absolutely cannot let our guard down!"

"And as you all probably know, this year's Clippers have been amazing. They faced the Mavericks in the first round..."

Just like now, they started by losing two home games in a row; then, they won their away games in a row, successfully leveling the series score.

"Their first-round series this year is unique, even in the history of basketball. No team won the first six games at home. This absurd record was only ended when the Clippers won the decisive Game 7 at home."

"So anything can happen as long as the series isn't over. Keep it up, guys!"

Kerr doesn't want the Warriors to follow in the Mavericks' footsteps.

Therefore, he must sound the alarm for all team members, especially those who have problems with even their concentration during the game!

As for video analysis and tactical discussions, there wasn't anything particularly new or interesting.

After all, Kerr had already done a very thorough study of the Clippers' roster before the series began.

This is certainly a good thing. The Warriors' ability to take a 2-0 lead on the road is definitely partly due to their preparation.

But this also means that he has little room for adjustment during the series.

From the very first game onwards, his side has been completely in a state of revealing his hand.

The opponent already knows exactly how to fight and what tactics to use.

So all Kerr can do is wait passively, waiting for the opposing coach to make the first move on the court, and then he can respond accordingly.

Soon, the next day arrived.

Because it was his home turf, Li Xingchen never gave up on pushing forward his training tasks. Whenever he had a spare moment, he would seize the opportunity to complete one set of breakthrough exercises after another.

However, this training mission was indeed more difficult. After a day of hard work, Li Xingchen checked his mission completion progress and found that it had only slowly climbed to a little over 30%, not even 35%.

However, when Li Xingchen opened his training progress record, he suddenly made an unexpected discovery.

He discovered that during the game against the Clippers the night before last, his task progress had actually shown some signs of improvement!

"Um?!"

"It seems that even in a match, as long as the corresponding tactics and actions are completed, they will be counted in the training quantity."

"That's great! Does that mean I can use the competition as practice and accelerate my training progress while competing?"

"But it's very difficult, since the team can't just let me play randomly; it depends on whether I happen to have the opportunity."

Li Xingchen clicked his tongue, looking slightly troubled.

He knew this training mission couldn't be completed so quickly, but within his expectations, a series of matches should be enough time.

However, judging from the current progress, it would be good if he could advance the mission to more than 60% completion after these two home games.

But what if the Warriors win the series in five games or less?

It feels like the task might take until the middle of the Western Conference Finals to complete.

This was clearly something that Li Xingchen, who was eager to improve, found hard to accept.

"Never mind, I'm already very strong anyway."

"During this time, besides practicing dribbling and breaking through, let's also solidify the timing and techniques for passing the ball to teammates when attacking with the ball —"

Chase Center, evening of June 12, 2021, local time.

Two days later, the Clippers, who are down 0-2, will visit the Golden State Warriors' home court tonight.

This is practically their do-or-die game of the season.

If they lose another game, it will basically mean the end of their season.

After all, in the more than 70-year history of the NBA, there have been more than a thousand playoff series where a team has been down 0-3, and no team has ever managed to come back from that deficit.

In Tencent's live stream today, the commentary team consists of the "Double Wang" duo, Wang Zixing and Wang Meng.

"Today was a must-win game for the Clippers. We can also look forward to seeing if Coach Lue can make any effective adjustments."

"As Coach Wang just mentioned, the key to the Clippers' victory today is to find a way to limit the Warriors' backcourt duo's offense."

"After all, the Clippers' offense has been quite good in the first two games, as we can see from the final score. Scoring around 120 points without overtime is not a low offensive efficiency."

"The main reason they lost two games at home was that they didn't play well on the defensive end. Curry scored 40 and 36 points in the first two games, and the Clippers never found a good way to limit him."

"In the last game, they tried to use Beverley to attack Curry, and that 'mad dog' really went berserk, making a clearly dangerous move on the court. He was ultimately called for a Flagrant Foul 1, giving the Warriors free throws, and also..."

This boosted the morale of the entire Warriors team.

"It's like trying to steal a chicken and losing the rice instead."

"So, whether the Clippers have a chance to fight back in this series depends on two things: first, whether they can improve their defense against the Warriors' backcourt duo; and second, their performance in crucial moments—in the previous two games, they lost in the final moments!"

"Okay, let's take a look at the starting lineups for both teams—oh?! The Clippers have actually changed their starting lineup; looks like they came prepared!"

The screen displayed the Clippers' starting lineup for today.

Reggie Jackson, Terence Mann, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Nicolas Batum.

The Clippers' starting lineup has changed from Morris to Mann.

Their smaller size might put them at a slight disadvantage on the boards; however, their energy in the game will be absolutely abundant, and their defensive rotations will certainly be faster.

Given the opponent's strong backcourt duo, Coach Lue's lineup adjustment is a very reasonable one.

After all, Morris's offensive ability mainly lies in his three-point shooting; his finishing ability in the paint is not particularly strong.

In the first game, he couldn't even make his outside shots, which was a pure liability for the team.

Say more.

In the second game, his three-point shooting efficiency was actually quite good, but because he was frequently targeted by the Warriors' backcourt duo on the defensive end, he basically had to give back every point he scored, so he may not have had much of a positive impact on the team.

Especially considering that he missed two open three-pointers in the crucial final moments, Coach Lue was even more convinced that he might not be reliable at all.

It's perfectly reasonable for a player who excels offensively but is weak defensively, and whose offense is also inconsistent, to be dropped by the head coach.

Mann is different. Although Mann's outside shooting is also inconsistent, his penetration and attack are equally sharp.

When he's not having a good shooting night, he's able to maintain his scoring efficiency by flexibly adjusting his offensive approach.

More importantly, he is more energetic on the defensive end and has better footwork than Morris, so there is no need to worry about him being targeted by the Warriors' backcourt duo.

Coach Lue's tactical change was indeed effective, at least breaking down half of Curry and Li Xingchen's pick-and-roll offense. Without Morris to counter, the offensive threat of the pick-and-roll will definitely be greatly reduced, because the Clippers can mostly just switch on defense.

The only potential concern is that after removing Morris from the starting lineup, the tallest player in the Clippers' entire starting lineup is only 2.03-meter Batum, and unlike Draymond Green, he doesn't consistently play the center position.

As a small-ball center, he doesn't have much experience playing the center position.

Therefore, the Clippers' current roster may face a significant challenge in protecting the boards.

However, aside from that, replacing Morris with Mann should be considered a comprehensive upgrade on both offense and defense, at least for the game against the Warriors.

The Warriors, on the other hand, did not change their lineup, sticking to the same strategy as in the previous two games.

Curry, Star, Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Lue are the five starters.

As the match was about to begin, Li Xingchen pondered which stat he should choose to actively allocate points to.

Choosing to score feels great, having plenty of credit at the last minute is definitely satisfying; choosing to assist seems better for long-term development, as honing new skills might be more beneficial.

After some deliberation, Li Xingchen saw the Clippers' new starting lineup.

Therefore, he chose to add the "active skill points" for this game to the rebounding stat.

Anyone with even a little court awareness can see that the Clippers' new starting lineup is good on both offense and defense, but its biggest weaknesses are size and rebounding.

Li Xingchen then had no choice but to take this opportunity to try out rebounding, a new "point control element" he had never tried before, and see if he could make some progress with it.

Since rebounds, like assists, are a "point control element" that he hasn't unlocked yet, if he actively adds skill points to this statistic, he will "guarantee six rebounds" in this game.

In a normal game, if he plays the full starting minutes, his rebounding average is usually three to four.

Therefore, this "score-controlling element" will definitely still provide some support.

However, it must be said that the value of rebounds is indeed far less than that of assists.

Although there are occasional crucial rebound battles on the court, most of the time the rebounds in the backcourt are actually picked up by the team.

Unlike an assist, which at least guarantees a point for the team and their teammates.

But in any case, it's always worth trying a new skill you haven't tried before.

What if there's some surprising discovery?

After these two matches, Li Xingchen felt that his "active skill point allocation" was effective in a regular way.

The "score control elements" he has already unlocked are basically matched and correspond to his own abilities, and there won't be too much difference.

The feeling of "actively adding points" skills is like forcibly boosting one's own abilities.

Because the stats after "adding points" exceed one's current abilities, it's often the case that even at the very end of the match...

An agreement has been reached.

At this point, the system will provide a notification, allowing Li Xingchen to deliver an even more stunning performance.

"I wonder how amazing the rebounding will be?"

"Anyway, let's try more things. If it doesn't work, we can switch back to points or assists in the next game!"

Because they are currently leading 2-0, Li Xingchen is relatively relaxed.

Not only is he willing to try out new elements in the "active skill point allocation" to see the effects, but he also wants to make more dribbling breakthroughs in the game so that he can advance his training progress at the same time.

However, after the game started, the Warriors quickly fell into a disadvantageous position.

The reason for falling behind was not because Li Xingchen chose to add points to the useless stat of rebounding, nor because Li Xingchen was joking about the game and casually practicing his ball-handling breakthroughs.

In fact, Li Xingchen's performance was perfectly normal.

The main problem is that the teammates are just too abstract!

First up is Curry.

Curry seems to have entered that period of slump again, which is what happens "a few days every month," or rather, "a game in every series."

In every series he plays, there's always one game that will rip him out!

The previous series was Game 3, and this series is also Game 3.

It's a good thing, since those familiar with Curry know that he usually plays in Games 3, 4, or 5.

So, it's better to poop early than late.

It's not that crucial, right?

Midway through the second quarter, Li Xingchen glanced at Curry's stats, and it was simply unbelievable.

He made 2 of 11 shots, including 1 of 7 three-pointers. In nearly half a game, he only scored 5 points on 11 attempts. This cannot be explained by "not having Morris to target". It is 100% Curry's own shooting touch today. He didn't bring his shooting package.

Besides Curry, Warriors' middle shooter Wiggins, along with substitutes Jordan Poole and Cup Cat, also had a poor shooting night.

With only two minutes left in halftime, the Clippers had already built a commanding 59-44 lead.

The Warriors' offense was weak, and their defense was also subpar. The Clippers' shooting percentage was incredibly high, to the point that...

They didn't miss many shots, giving the Warriors' backcourt players almost no chance to grab rebounds.

Therefore, with nearly half the game gone, Li Xingchen only had one rebound in his stats.

Back on the court, it was the Warriors' offensive possession.

The final stage of the first half naturally featured the same lineup as the starting lineup.

However, because they were trailing by a large margin, and because the Warriors could afford to lose this game, Li Xingchen felt that his teammates on the court didn't really have much fighting spirit.

However, this will not have any impact on him.

On the court, his performance on both offense and defense remained stable, and his hustle and defensive rotations were still active, making him arguably the Warriors' last fig leaf today.

As halftime approached, he only had one rebound, and the system noticed that he was far from meeting today's rebounding target, so it triggered a passive warning again!

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