![\"Cooper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2246539053-e1763367292585.jpg\")
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Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks reacts during the second half of the game against the Portland Trail Blazers at American Airlines Center on November 16, 2025 in Dallas, Texas<\/p>\n
Dallas Mavericks<\/a> rookie Cooper Flagg on Sunday night became the youngest player in NBA history to record a 20\/5\/5 game with zero turnovers<\/a>. Furthermore, the 18-year-old recorded his fourth 20-point game of the season, joining LeBron James<\/a> for the most 20-point outings before the age of 19.<\/p>\n Flagg finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal as the Mavericks pulled off a 138-133 OT win<\/a> over the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>, their first victory in the post-Nico Harrison era. The Mavs also got useful contributions from Klay Thompson (19 points) and D\u2019Angelo Russell (12 points) off the bench, to go with steady performances from starters Daniel Gafford (20 points), P.J. Washington (21 points), Brandon Williams (15 points) and Max Christie (14 points).<\/p>\n Cooper Flagg becomes the youngest player in NBA history to record 20\/5\/5 with 0 TOV. <\/p>\n Cooper Flagg now has the 2nd most 20-point games by an 18-year-old in NBA history.<\/p>\n Only LeBron had more. <\/p>\n Cooper Flagg Getting Comfortable<\/p>\n Flagg, who was initially entrusted as the team\u2019s point guard, no longer has as much ball-handling responsibility, with Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd inserting guards Williams and Christie into the starting unit. In Sunday\u2019s win, Williams and Christie combined for 10 assists, allowing Flagg to excel in his role as a cutter and slasher.<\/p>\n The 18-year-old is definitely starting to get more comfortable with the pace of the NBA. In his last five games<\/a>, he\u2019s averaging an impressive 18.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.8 steals on 51.4% shooting, while making 1.0 three per game. In contrast, he averaged 13.4 points on 41% shooting through his first five games in October.<\/p>\n After Sunday\u2019s win, Kidd couldn\u2019t stop raving about Flagg\u2019s impact on both ends, and also praised the youngster\u2019s ability to come up big in close games.<\/p>\n \u201cCooper delivered on both ends,\u201d Kidd said, via The Athletic\u2019s Christian Clark.<\/a> \u201cOffensively and defensively\u2026.He thrives in the open court. He got into the open court more there in the second half. He\u2019s comfortable in that [close game] situation. You can see that. Playing a lot of close games, and he\u2019s delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n LeBron James, a Fan of Cooper Flagg<\/p>\n This past summer, Flagg (18 years and 186 days old) became the youngest No. 1 overall pick<\/a> since LeBron James (18 years, 178 days old) in 2003. As such, the Duke alum entered the league with high expectations, even though James felt he was under more pressure when he arrived in the NBA as a teenager leading the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe [Flagg] has the benefit, unlike myself, of joining a team that\u2019s established,\u201d James said on his \u201cMind the Game\u201d podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going to be playing with Hall of Fame guys \u2014Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and a Hall of Fame coach, Jason Kidd. They can give him the whole blueprint while he continues to learn what his blueprint will be.\u201d<\/p>\n James, who worked out with Flagg ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, spoke glowingly of the Mavs rookie\u2019s overall skill set and intangibles.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s going to be amazing,\u201d James said of Flagg.<\/p>\n Cooper Flagg is averaging 15.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals through his first 14 NBA games. LeBron James averaged 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists as a rookie for the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/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 Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks reacts during the second half of the game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-288660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}