NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 6: Initial settlement of system rewards, new tasks follow one after another!

In fact, the system panel automatically popped up the moment he scored and the score changed.

—This thing doesn't really obstruct vision, since it's semi-transparent. Otherwise, it wouldn't be appropriate for Li Xingchen to suddenly lose his sight while walking down the street.

But at the same time, all his teammates rushed up and surrounded him, pushing, shouting, and celebrating.

So it wasn't the system affecting his other actions, but rather the commotion at the scene was so great that he couldn't even see what was written on the system panel.

After a while of fiddling around, my teammate finally slowed down a bit.

After seeing that the system popped up a reward settlement message, he clicked to settle the reward at a later, more suitable time—after all, the current atmosphere was not suitable for settling down and studying these things.

"Li, you're amazing! How did you do that?"

"From this distance, I might not even make one out of ten shots during training!"

"We're in the playoffs! Guys, after two years of silence, we're finally back in the playoffs!"

"Thanks to Li! We're so lucky to have you! You're a hero for our team!"

……

The teammates' surprise, the coach's affirmation, the whole team's excitement, the fans' adoration and adulation...

They flocked to the scene in an instant.

Immediately after the on-court celebrations ended, numerous media outlets conducted post-game interviews, including those conducted on-site, those from Tencent's female reporter, and those from the NBA's official post-game press conference.

During this time, Li Xingchen experienced being surrounded by countless fans asking for autographs for the first time, and also experienced, for the first time, having to pour ice water on each other with his teammates to celebrate advancing back in the locker room...

Previously, such a celebratory celebration was usually only held when a team advanced in a playoff series; however, winning this play-in tournament was equivalent to advancing to the next round of the series. Moreover, the team had been under pressure regarding their performance for the past month, and the atmosphere had been quite subdued, which they finally released.

Li Xingchen didn't say much during the interview.

He understands the principle that humility leads to longevity, and his performance today was the result of perfect timing, favorable circumstances, and supportive relationships. He may not be able to maintain such a high level of performance in the short term, so it's best to lower the expectations of the fans.

If you jump too high all at once, you might fall very hard.

"It's all luck. I was really on fire today. I'm not usually this good. I'm just blessed by the heavens!"

"I also want to thank Coach Kerr for giving me this opportunity to play today..."

After a few words of modesty, Li Xingchen almost completely erased his own credit, instead emphasizing the coach's ingenious tactics and his teammates' excellent teamwork.

In fact, it's obvious to anyone with eyes that, judging from Li Xingchen's final performance, apart from Curry drawing the defense's attention to him which might have played a role, the rest was almost entirely Li Xingchen's personal show.

However, his humility was not annoying; on the contrary, it made the coach and teammates secretly happy, and for a moment, everyone looked at Li Xingchen with more kindness.

Of course, Li Xingchen isn't entirely without his moments of brilliance. He can be humble with his teammates and coaches, but he must strike hard against his opponents.

"Brooks said he wanted to make a bet with me before I took my last shot," Li Xingchen joked. "I wonder if he still remembers?"

"If you ever see him, remember to make him pay me back my $100! Seeing someone sink a super long-range three-pointer up close, even under his defense, and charging him $100 for admission, I don't think that's unreasonable, haha!"

……

After all the celebrations and interviews were over, Kerr told everyone to meet at the arena the next day for preparations and training for the first round of the playoffs.

Because they played two play-in games, they only have one day of rest before the playoffs officially begin. They will fly to Salt Lake City tomorrow afternoon to prepare for their away game against the Utah Jazz the day after tomorrow night.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Li Xingchen drove his car back to his small apartment near the stadium.

He entered the league as a second-round pick two years ago and had always been a fringe player in the league. He had some ability in various aspects, but none of them were outstanding.

Especially under the immense pressure of NBA regular season games, their already limited skills are often not fully utilized.

Fortunately, he performed well each time he was sent down to the Development League, which is why he has had intermittent opportunities to return to the regular season, but he has never made it into the team's regular rotation.

Since he was only officially hired at the end of the season, he won't receive much salary this season. California also has the highest taxes in the United States, so he won't actually earn much.

His life isn't exactly impoverished, but it's not exactly comfortable either. He can afford a small single room near the arena and has a car, which is actually quite good for a fringe player in the league.

But now, he has new hope. Putting everything else aside, just based on his miraculous performance tonight, he should be able to secure a regular spot in the team's rotation.

But once he enters the rotation, the challenges for him become even greater.

After all, NBA games are very long, and it's not enough to just have a few seconds of highlight performance; consistent ability is what teams need more.

He needs to deliver the performance the team wants in more playing time to solidify his position within the team and the league.

Fortunately, having the system in his hands, he wasn't guilty at all.

He will continue to improve, and his future holds endless possibilities.

After returning home and washing up, Li Xingchen finally had time to calm down and study the system's reward settlement.

"Task reward settlement is now open. You have three options:"

"First, upgrade the existing point control element 'must score 15 points in a single game' to 'must score 16 points in a single game'."

"Second, improve the existing scoring control element 'must score 15 points in a single game' to 'must score 14 to 16 points in a single game'."

"Third, unlock a new scoring element: 'You must get four assists in a single game'."

After a moment's thought, Li Xingchen decisively chose reward one.

As a shooting guard, his primary task is, of course, to score. While rebounds and assists can be icing on the cake, they are not essential skills for him at present.

As for this "improvement", he was completely confused at first. Why would it involve adjusting the range downwards?

Thinking about it later, I realized that the system was probably worried that his score control was too unbelievable, so it came up with this "concealing his weaknesses" mechanism.

However, Li Xingchen certainly won't need this in the short term.

Adding one point directly to his score in a single game is obviously the most beneficial option for him, which will undoubtedly help him improve his performance in the upcoming playoffs.

He is ready to compete in the playoffs and shine!

At that moment, the system panel popped up with new content again.

"Reward settlement complete."

"A new task is now being issued: Complete 2000 specific mid-range shooting drills & 1000 specific three-point shooting drills!"