![\"Cooper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2267854417-e1774535420930.jpg\")
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DENVER, COLORADO – MARCH 25: Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks reacts after being injured on a play in the fourth quarter against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena on March 25, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. <\/p>\n
Cooper Flagg<\/a> did his best for the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> to try to stop the duo of Nikola Jokic<\/a> and Jamal Murray<\/a> of the Denver Nuggets<\/a> on Wednesday night. Still, he came up short and suffered what first appeared to be a concerning hand injury after a fall in the third quarter.<\/p>\n However, in what is good news for both Flagg and the Mavericks, the star rookie is not listed on the injury report<\/a> and isn\u2019t expected to miss any time, despite what first looked like a concerning injury.<\/p>\n Flagg put up 26 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in the loss that featured a historic performance from Jokic and Murray<\/a>, but remains at the top of the Rookie of the Year race.<\/a><\/p>\n Cooper Flagg Injury Update<\/p>\n Flagg fell on his left hand<\/a> after jumping up for a pass in the fourth quarter against Denver on Wednesday night. At first, Dallas had cause for concern, but after being looked at by medical staff, the rookie re-entered the game and finished out what ended up being a seven-point loss to the 2023 champs.<\/p>\n Flagg goes tumbling to the ground hard here, and Cam Johnson called for the foul. Not quite sure about the call. If anything, it looks like Cam tried to slow his fall? \ud83d\ude05 <\/p>\n After the game, Flagg offered a positive injury update, despite his hand being heavily wrapped and iced when speaking to reporters postgame.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing okay,\u201d he said, per Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoops Jounral<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s tough \u2014 playing a lot of minutes, a couple overtime games back-to-back, and physical games. Just got to take care of my body and get ready for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n Flagg has held an outstretched responisbility in his first NBA<\/a> season with the Mavericks, and while high school and college seasons are roughly 30-40 games, it\u2019s fair to say he\u2019s hitting the \u2018rookie wall<\/a>\u2018 that young players face in their first season playing perhaps the most basketball of their life.<\/p>\n He has already missed time with a foot injury and a few other health concerns<\/a>, but in his 61 games this season, Flagg is putting up 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 1.1 steals on 47.3% shooting, still in a tight Rookie of the Year race with Kon Knueppel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Flagg is not listed on the Mavericks\u2019 injury report.<\/p>\n Mavericks Get More Good Injury News<\/p>\n Dallas has been plagued by injuries this season, whether it be Kyrie Irving<\/a>, Dereck Lively<\/a>, Anthony Davi<\/a>s (while he was still on the team), and several other key contributors.<\/p>\n But while Irving expects to miss the rest of the year, a recent injury update for Lively could point to good news for the Mavericks, as they have yet to see a prolonged stretch of him and Flagg, their expected duo for the future, on the court together.<\/p>\n According to Noah Weber of Fansided<\/a>, Lively was seen without crutches or his walking boot for the first time in a while after Dallas\u2019 recent game against the Golden State Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Dallas\u2019 game against the Golden State Warriors on Monday, Lively II was walking with just a boot \u2014 no cane or crutches,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis is a major change from how Mavericks fans are used to seeing him on the sidelines this season, and he\u2019s progressed from using a scooter to walking with a boot.\u201d<\/p>\n Lively isn\u2019t expected to return this season<\/a> after undergoing surgery on his foot in December, but as his career has already been plagued by injuries, the latest update points to his return going well.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely getting there,\u201d Lively said recently about his recovery. \u201cMaking sure I don\u2019t rush myself, taking it real slow, and making sure that the scans are gonna give me the advice on what I should do. Not how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n Lively played in just seven games this season, but there\u2019s hope he\u2019ll return to full strength and prove the potential he\u2019s shown next year alongside Flagg.<\/p>\n Dallas is currently 23-50<\/a> and in line for another lottery pick in the upcoming draft.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEli Gregorski<\/a> is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy Sports. He has years of sports writing experience covering the NBA, NFL, college football and basketball, international soccer, and Formula One. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning CU Independent student publication. More about Eli Gregorski<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Mavericks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty DENVER, COLORADO – MARCH 25: Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks reacts after being injured on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-565857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565857","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=565857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}