The careers of Trae Young and Luka Doncic will forever be intertwined. After all, the Atlanta Hawks made the bombshell decision during the 2018 NBA Draft to draft Doncic and then trade down to get Young from the Dallas Mavericks, along with the 2019 first round pick that became Cam Reddish. And on Thursday night, with the Hawks taking on the Orlando Magic in Mexico City, the intertwinement between the two talented point guards continued.
Young was on a heater against the Magic, dropping 33 points in the first half alone in a bit of a bounce-back performance from him in the shooting department given how cold he has been to begin the year. The Hawks star then finished with 41 points and eight assists, including the dime to set up Dejounte Murray’s go-ahead triple in a 116-115 win, and in doing so, Young tied the record Doncic set back in 2019 for most points in a single game in Mexico City.
Back on December 12, 2019, the Mavs took on the Detroit Pistons in Mexico City in a contest that gave us this memorable moment from Blake Griffin. Luka Doncic was on point for the Mavs during that contest. In addition to dropping 41 points, Doncic also tallied 12 rebounds and 11 assists, doing it all for the Mavs in a 122-111 win that moved them to 17-7 at that point in the season.
Clearly, both Trae Young and Doncic are impervious to whatever negative effects altitude has on player performance. As one would recall, Mexico City is one of the highest-altitude cities in the world, at 7,349 feet (1.392 miles). For reference, the famously daunting altitude of the Denver Nuggets home court is a “mere” 5,280 feet (1 mile).
This wasn’t the only record the Hawks star point guard set on the night. He also became just the second Hawks player since 2006 to tally a 40+ point, 5+ assist, and 3+ steal night, and Atlanta needed every bit of that production as they came up against a pesky Magic team led by Jalen Suggs. Suggs had 21 points on 7-10 shooting from the field to go along with six steals, but Young and company were able to escape with a win to get back to winning ways.
