![\"Cooper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP25350215388095-1765869444.jpg\")
Flagg (#32) drives to the basket against Utah Jazz forward Kyle Anderson (#2) during the first half on December 15, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah, US [Tyler Tate\/AP Photo]Flagg ties Mavs rookie scoring mark<\/p>\nFlagg joins LeBron James and Kevin Durant as only third teenager with at least 40 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.<\/p>\n
Published On 16 Dec 202516 Dec 2025<\/p>\n
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Cooper Flagg has scored the most points by an 18-year-old in NBA history, but he could not enjoy the accomplishment because it came in a loss.<\/p>\n
Flagg had 42 points \u2013 topping the previous mark of 37 set by LeBron James on December 13, 2003 \u2013 in a 140-133 loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday night.<\/p>\n
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\u201cObviously, we didn\u2019t win. So it\u2019s tough for me to want to be happy, or any of that, but obviously it\u2019s a success,\u201d said Flagg, who had a bag of ice on his ankle after rolling it at the end of regulation.<\/p>\n
Flagg also became just the fifth rookie to record 40 points, five rebounds and five assists in the last 15 years, as he finished with seven boards and six assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more time he spends on the floor, the more he sees, the better he gets. He displayed it all tonight,\u201d Dallas coach Jason Kidd said.<\/p>\n
Flagg has been playing his best basketball the past few weeks as the number one overall draft pick has averaged 25.7 points in the last seven games. He is also playing aggressively enough to get to the line and went 15 for 20 against Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s come a long way from the start of the season, so I\u2019m proud of that fourth quarter,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new game \u2026 but I am getting more and more comfortable \u2026 and just settling in, honestly, just being myself and letting the game come to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and made a savvy play to get the game into overtime when he missed a free throw on purpose with such a big carom that teammate Max Christie got the rebound with 3.9 seconds remaining and was fouled.<\/p>\n
Flagg (#32) drives to the basket against Utah Jazz forward Kyle Anderson (#2) during the first half on December 15, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah, US [Tyler Tate\/AP Photo]Flagg ties Mavs rookie scoring mark<\/p>\n
With Anthony Davis out and Dallas missing several other teammates to injuries, this game may be a harbinger of things to come as Flagg becomes a centrepiece of the Mavericks\u2019 offence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were going to Coop. He was killing them the whole game, so they finally tried to double him,\u201d PJ Washington said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me at all. I know exactly what he\u2019s capable of. He\u2019s a special player, so there will be a lot more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flagg also tied Mark Aguirre for the most points by a rookie in Mavs history as he begins to make his mark on the franchise. But he could not stop thinking of what he could have done to get the win despite the throbbing ankle. The Jazz made a late 11-0 run and then dominated in overtime as Flagg did not score a basket in the extra period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gotta be better. I had a couple of dumb turnovers, missed a couple [of] easy ones, but I gotta be better, executing down the stretch like that,\u201d Flagg said.<\/p>\n
Setting records might be nice, but Flagg feels it just means he is consistently improving, and that has been his goal all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really focused on a lot of that stuff [the records]. I\u2019m more just focused on being present, day-to-day, and trying to get better and getting our team as many wins as we can,\u201d Flagg said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flagg joins LeBron James and Kevin Durant as only third teenager with at least 40 points, 5 rebounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[461,49,48,459,44,457,82,772,1690],"class_list":{"0":"post-348483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348483","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=348483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}