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The Dallas Mavericks suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, 100-99. Young up-and-comer Luka Doncic played his heart out that evening, scoring a team-highs of 24 points and 11 rebounds, came one assist shy of a triple-double, and early pulled off the upset over the West's No. 2 seed with a late three-point play to give the Mavs a two-point lead with less than six seconds left in the contest.
That night was the first time that the Slovenian superstar played in Denver, where most visiting teams — not just in the NBA, but in all major U.S. sports — struggle to cope with the higher altitude that the city's known for.
Local reporter Duvalier Johnson shared a tweet of Doncic's post-game interview with the rookie admitting to finding the harsh climates of Mile High hard to overcome:
https://twitter.com/DuvalierJohnson/status/1106425168296062976
Although, based on his impressive stat line from Thursday's game as mentioned earler, it certainly didn't look as if Doncic had any troubles performing at his peak. Regardless, this experience in Colorado serves as a steep learning curve that the 20-year-old can learn from and build upon for the future.
Ironically, the current front-runner for this season's Rookie of the Year award reached a new level of altitude himself with his fantastic dunk that put his team back in the lead with less than 10 seconds left in the contest.
Doncic also mentioned in the interview that he “couldn't breathe” at certain times. However, if the fans in attendance during that game were asked what they thought about his highlight play, they'll probably reply that they were the ones left breathless and panicking in fear of an upset.
