It was an early end to the first half for Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg, who tweaked his left ankle for the second game in a row and limped off the floor.
Before the Dallas Mavericks hosted the Denver Nuggets at American Airlines Center for a nationally-televised game Wednesday night, notable figures added to the heaps of praise being sent to No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg.
"I got a unicorn here," said Mavs great and head coach Jason Kidd during pregame media availability. "I'm excited to come to work and make him uncomfortable to help him become one of the best players in the world."
When it comes to discomfort, it was less about Flagg being put through a training regime and more him about him taking the brunt of NBA physicality on the court.
With three minutes remaining in the second quarter, the star rookie tweaked his left ankle when defending a drive into the lane.
He would hobble to the sideline and into the locker room tunnel momentarily before returning to the floor just over a minute later.
This is the second game where Flagg has limped and favored his left ankle during a game this week. In the Mavs' win over Brooklyn on Monday, he also returned to the game after sustaining a similar injury.
Though the 19-year-old sensation demonstrates "unicorn"-like traits and a nimble frame that can sustain these types of blows, he wasn't able to provide enough magic to make the first half against Denver any competitive.
The Nuggets, even without the injured star Nikola Jokic, built a lead as large as 18 before taking a 63-46 lead into the break.
If the Mavs are going to come back in this one, they'll need Flagg's youthful adrenaline to corse through his body to allow for Dallas' No. 1 option to remain on the floor.
Coop struggled to just six points on 3-9 from the field in the first half. Dallas has beaten Denver twice this season (the only team thus far to do that to the Nuggets) and Flagg was one rebound and one assist shy of a 30-point triple double the last time these teams met.
Tonight, Naji Marshall leads Dallas with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Jamal Murray anchors the Nuggets offense by scoring 14 first-half points amid the absence of the triple-double average Jokic brings.
Flagg might find motivation during the halftime break from the words of another Mavs great who has issued high praise for the rookie's first half of Year 1.
"Cooper is the perfect example of: he can play any position, he can guard any position," Mavs icon Dirk Nowitzki described to USA TODAY this week.
"You can never have enough 6-9 guys who can bring the ball up, put the offense in motion, get downhill at any time, spot up and shoot. He can set the pick-and-roll, but he can also run the pick-and-roll," the Hall of Famer Nowitzki went on.
"Honestly, he's a perfect guy for where this game is going. The scary thing to me is that the kid is only 19."