"Su, it's okay if we lose tonight. Don't push yourself, understand?"
After beating the Portland Trail Blazers, the Cleveland Cavaliers hurried to Denver to face the Denver Nuggets on the road.
In the locker room before the game, Mike Brown gave Su a reminder.
The Denver Nuggets' home court, Pepsi Center, sat on the Colorado Plateau at an elevation of 1,606 meters, making it the highest-altitude arena in the entire NBA.
The high altitude could affect visiting players. Players from other teams might suffer altitude sickness, and they were especially likely to run out of energy in the fourth quarter.
The Denver Nuggets' players, on the other hand, were accustomed to playing at that elevation. To some extent, that gave them home-court advantage.
Mike Brown was especially concerned about rookie Su Yi, who ran more than anyone else on the court.
He didn't want his ace getting hurt in a single game.
Su Yi nodded.
In fact, he'd felt uncomfortable training after arriving in Denver, but luckily, his body adapted well.
He'd been in Denver for a day now, and he felt completely fine during practice.
Still, Su Yi worried about his stamina. He wasn't sure if he could hold up.
After all, the Denver Nuggets' Pepsi Center was like a machine designed to drain players' energy.
Besides home-court advantage, the Denver Nuggets also had the league's fearsome Golden Duo—Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony!
Last month, on December 20, 2006, after the Philadelphia 76ers' management saw that the team's results had failed to improve for a long time,
and with Allen Iverson at odds with the team's management, they sent him to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Andre Miller, Joe Smith, and two first-round picks.
Allen Iverson's ten-year career with the Philadelphia 76ers had come to an end.
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