Dallas Mavericks<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\nFlagg, the No 1 overall pick in this year\u2019s draft, was the talk of the Dallas opener going into the game. Coming out, the talk was of Wembanyama, who offered a reminder why he was the top overall choice just two years ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The 7ft 4in Frenchman was playing in the regular season for the first time since deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot condition in his shoulder, required surgery and limited him to 46 games last campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all knew he was going to be assertive,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cHe\u2019s been out eight months. He\u2019s been waiting for this probably longer and more thorough than anybody else. You saw him take the moment and play spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flagg scored for the Spurs before he scored for himself, getting called for goaltending in the second quarter. His first bucket finally came on the first possession of the second half as the 18-year-old finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Flagg is the second-youngest player to start in his debut, two days older than LeBron James was 22 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still a rookie,\u201d said 13-year veteran Anthony Davis, who opened his first full season with the Mavericks after his trade from the Lakers last February. \u201cI\u2019m not sure he\u2019s a social media guy or not. But everything was No 1 pick Cooper Flagg and Wemby matchup. So you\u2019re hearing it. I\u2019m not sure if it got to him, but it\u2019s first-game jitters when it\u2019s time for the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flagg didn\u2019t even attempt a shot in the last 22 minutes of the first half after putting up a pair in the opening two minutes, including a near-dunk on a fast break alley-oop from Davis. The ball started to go down but came back out. He hit a jumper from the free throw line for his first points, and hit a tough fadeaway for his second bucket. Flagg was 4 of 13 from the field and had three turnovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited, but I\u2019m excited to go on,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cObviously, it hurts, the first loss being like that. Try to look forward to the next one, turn the page and get ready. We know we\u2019ve got a lot better than that. Staying positive and staying ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about his performance, Flagg was blunt. \u201cNot great,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, didn\u2019t play incredibly well, but we\u2019ve got to move past it, turn our focus and start looking toward Friday [against the Washington Wizards].\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama, meanwhile, was dominant. The 21-year old had seven of San Antonio\u2019s 12 dunks as the Spurs outscored the Mavericks 68-26 in the paint and outshot Dallas 58%-37%. Wembanyama was 15 of 21 from the field and had three blocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed to make a statement in the locker room. I feel like I needed to make a statement to my teammates,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cIt\u2019s also just the beginning because there\u2019s so much more I want to add to my game. Some things take time and maturity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama repeatedly went right at Davis, a five-time NBA<\/a> All-Defensive Team member. After his dunk late in the second quarter, he hit a jumper while drawing Davis\u2019 fourth foul. In the second half, he dribbled at and around him for a left-handed slam. Davis was brought to Dallas for defense in a deal that cost the Mavericks a generational offensive star in his prime in Luka Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\nWembanyama\u2019s performance was an eye-opener for Flagg, but something he was expecting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s incredible,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cHe\u2019s a different player. You can\u2019t know what it\u2019s like until you\u2019re on the court with him. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve never seen before. He was great tonight, but we\u2019ve to do a better job of trying to take away some of his looks. You can\u2019t foul him as much as we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6ft 9in Flagg was technically the starting point guard as the Mavericks await the return of Kyrie Irving, which is likely months away as he recovers from a torn ACL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama dunked on Cooper Flagg\u2019s debut. And shot over it. And dribbled around it. And reminded everyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-234968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}