NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 9: Jinzhou plays away against Salt Lake City, Li Xingchen comes on as a substitute!

Salt Lake City, Smart Home Arena.

—This is the name of the Utah Jazz's home arena. This unpretentious name is probably related to the Utah Jazz's sponsors at the time.

When a team has an away game, except for special cases like back-to-back games, they usually arrive a day in advance. This is mainly to allow players time to adapt to changes in time difference, altitude, and other environmental conditions after arriving at the away game, so that they can adjust their bodies to their best condition.

Salt Lake City is over 1,000 meters above sea level, so playing a game in such an away city requires arriving a day in advance to acclimatize.

This way, the team will have the opportunity to spend one to two hours on shooting or tactical practice at the local arena on the morning of the game, which is crucial for adapting to the game in the evening.

Li Xingchen naturally took this opportunity to work hard to complete his shooting training tasks little by little, and the progress bar slowly reached 25%.

The afternoon is basically for resting and studying tactics, otherwise the physical strength for the evening game will be affected.

Li Xingchen knew that he had only been a fringe player in the team before. Even if he got a lot more playing time today than before, he would not be able to play almost the whole game like a starter. At most, he would only have a standard substitute rotation time.

That's why he dared to train extra hard last night without worrying about affecting his physical condition for today's match; but he also didn't need to push himself too hard in the afternoon. He needed to rest when he needed to maintain his best performance.

As evening approached, the team arrived at the stadium for pre-match warm-ups, and spectators entered the venue in waves.

Having been in the NBA for two years, this was the first time Li Xingchen had helped his team reach the playoffs, and the first time he had truly experienced the atmosphere of the playoffs.

Passionate and crazy!

Countless fans arrived at the stadium early, not wanting to miss even the players' warm-up. A full hour before the game, the stands were already incredibly crowded.

Jazz fans wore their team's jerseys and waved cheering paraphernalia.

However, the Warriors' fans were equally enthusiastic. After all, with Curry, a top-three player in the league, the team's soul, there were many Warriors fans who traveled all the way from San Francisco to attend the game. Every time Curry scored a basket during warm-up, it would elicit cheers from the crowd.

There were also guests of famous figures present, a light show, and interactive activities with the host...

The atmosphere at the venue had already reached its peak before the game even started. No wonder NBA playoff tickets are so expensive; watching a game live offers a unique experience that is completely unimaginable when viewed through a screen.

Fortunately, Li Xingchen didn't need to buy a ticket.

In both his past lives, he had never been a live audience member at an NBA playoff game; however, today he will be a player on the court in the NBA playoffs!

After the warm-up, there was still half an hour before the official game. The players went off the field to rest, and Kerr went to the locker room to give a final explanation of the various tactics that would be used today.

"It has been confirmed that the Jazz's starting shooting guard Donovan Mitchell will miss today due to a right ankle injury."

"The Jazz currently rely primarily on the inside-outside combination of Mitchell and Gobert, and their pick-and-roll offense is highly efficient, ranking first in the league this season."

"With Mitchell out, Gobert's offensive capabilities are somewhat weakened, but his defensive threat remains formidable. Therefore, our tactics today must target him. Ideally, we should attack his penalty area as much as possible from the start, getting him into foul trouble as early as possible... Once we get him off the field, our offense will be much easier!"

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Mitchell will be back in the next game, and then the Jazz will have their full Western Conference first-place roster. As the eighth seed challenging the first seed, whether we can win one of these two road games depends on today! If we can seize the opportunity and win today, we can at least return home with the series tied 1-1, which will greatly improve our chances in the series..."

……

The match begins.

The Warriors still fielded the same starting five as always—even though Li Xingchen delivered a perfect performance in the last game, the coach couldn't suddenly promote him from a bench player to the starting lineup; he would definitely start from the bench again.

As for whether he will get more playing time or even become a starter, that depends on his performance in the future.

However, looking at his current label of "scoring 16 points in every game", it's hard for Li Xingchen not to be confident.

On the other side, the Jazz's core starter Mitchell was indeed absent, and the player who replaced him in the starting lineup was Joe Ingles. He can organize and shoot, and was originally the offensive initiator of the Jazz's bench lineup. He also has a good three-point shooting accuracy and is known as the "Australian James".

The other four Jazz starters are the same as always: point guard Mike Conley, forwards Bojan Bogdanovic and Royce O'Neale, and renowned center, three-time Defensive Player of the Year, tall Rudy Gobert.

Li Xingchen knew he couldn't start, so he just sat on the bench and watched the game intently, thinking about the various tactics of both sides.

However, the fans on the other side of the ocean were not satisfied, and the live broadcast room on Tencent was filled with lively comments after the game started.

"Where's my Chen? My Chen was a god in the last game! He scored 15 points in just 40 seconds, including a game-winning three-pointer from way beyond the arc! Kerr, do you even know how to use your players? Why aren't you letting my Chen play?"

"Hilarious! 40 seconds and 15 minutes, that means 40 minutes would be... 900 points?"

"With Mitchell out, the Warriors will definitely have to fight hard. It seems unlikely that Xingchen will get many opportunities to shine!"

"He played so well in the last game, he should get some playing time. Starting is definitely out of the question, but we'll see if he gets a chance to come on as a substitute later!"

Of course, the comments also included some negative remarks about Li Xingchen, and even some that were defamatory and cursing.

The comments in the live broadcast room are always like this: enthusiasm, banter, rationality, and even madness are all intertwined, which is the complete portrait of a fan.

However, no matter what they say, Li Xingchen can't see it.

His attention was completely focused on the match in front of him.

The Warriors executed Kerr's tactics very well, with Curry, Wiggins, and others taking turns to penetrate the paint. They even drew Gobert's second foul just halfway through the first quarter, forcing him to leave the game.

As soon as Gobert left the court, the Jazz's defensive efficiency dropped noticeably, and the Warriors took a slight 20-16 lead after eight minutes.

However, at this point, Curry's first rest period was over.

The Jazz players breathed a sigh of relief because Curry was in good form today. In just eight minutes of playing time in the first quarter, he had already made three of five shots and two free throws, scoring ten points. Defending such a big man is really exhausting.

However, what they didn't expect was that their defensive tasks didn't seem to become any easier after Curry left the court.

Because after Curry left the game, Kerr simultaneously put Jordan Poole and Li Xingchen on the court!