This time Cooper Flagg didn’t wait until the second half before he started lighting up the scoreboard.
Off to slow starts in the first half of the previous two games against San Antonio and Utah, Flagg came out smoking hot during Sunday’s contest against the Brooklyn Nets. The second-year forward tallied 14 of his game-high 25 points in the first quarter and the Dallas Mavericks rode his performance to a convincing 130-93 win over the Nets at American Airlines Center. It was the second victory in a row for the Mavs, who padded their record to 6-4 going into Monday’s home game against the Indiana Pacers, while the Nets dropped to 2-8.
Also for the Mavs, Kyrie Irving finished with 21 points on 9-of-15 shots, Daniel Gafford had 18 points and was 7-of-8 from the field, and Santi Aldama and Naji Marshall scored 12 and 11 points, respectively. Zaccharie Risacher added 11 points and six rebounds for the Mavs.
Michael Porrter Jr. (19 points, nine rebounds), Nolan Traore (14 points) and Julius Randle (13 points) led the way for the Nets, who also received some meaningful contributions from Moritz Wagner (12 points), Danny Wolf (10 points and Josh Minott (10 points).
Flagg converted 5-of-6 shots in the first quarter, which ended with the Mavs nursing a 33-26 lead. The seven-point margin came after Flagg buried a long three-pointer with 0.6 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
“It’s just been more peanut butter and jelly more than anything else,” coach Dusty May said, referring to the second-half explosions by Flagg. “They said it’s a Maine power bar.”
Then, getting serious, May said: “When you look at his body of work, you look at his points, his rebounds, his numbers, his assists, he’s having a phenomenal year. Sometimes his quarters are a little bit better than others. Sometimes the ball is not dropping – the same shots.
“We’re just trying to really focus on the process of getting incrementally better each and every day and not over thinking anything else. Our plan with Cooper is just having an excessive approach to getting better, and not dwelling on first and fourth quarters or second and thirds.”
The Mavs got very little resistance from the Nets, who shot just 38.8 percent from the field and misfired on 28 of their 39 attempts form behind the three-point arc. Meanwhile, the Mavs made 57.1 percent of their shots, 40 percent of their three-pointers (14-of-35) and 90.9 percent of their free throws.
In racking up their largest margin of victory this season, the Mavs led 66-46 at halftime and 100-71 after the third quarter and scored at least 30 points in all four quarters.
“I think I’m just getting to my spots,” Flagg said, referring to his fast start. “I thought we did a good job of implementing a couple of things knowing our game plan of how they were going to guard us.
“I was just trusting the game plan and trusting getting to my spots and raising up and raising up and just finishing at the rim.”
On his career-high assists, Flagg said: “It just speaks to our group and everybody coming together. It didn’t even feel like anything crazy. — just playing through our system and making the right play and guys were just making shots, and it helps.”
When the Mavs weren’t making things miserable for the Nets form the perimeter, they turned to their power game and outscored Brooklyn inside the paint by a whopping 64-40 margin. The Mavs converted 32-of-42 shots inside the paint, and didn’t have any player play more than 29 minutes.