LHASA, July 19 -- Oxygen mattered in the opening match of China's National Basketball League when players from the plain had to inhale oxygen from time to time on Saturday evening.

Players of Nanjing military team needed to be substituted every minute and were forced to inhale oxygen once they sat at the sideline during the game against the Lhasa team at the altitude of 3,658 meters. The competition time was also cut by two minutes each period to 10 minutes.

The Lhasa team finally won the match 53-32 in their NBL debut. Team Lhasa is the first ever professional basketball team from the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

The NBL is another basketball league parallel to the better known CBA league, only smaller and with a shorter history. There are nine teams in the league for the 2015 season while the CBA has 20.