The Dallas Mavericks (25-56) took on the San Antonio Spurs (62-19) Friday night in their penultimate game of the 2025-2026 season, which ended in a 139-120 loss. Dallas rolled in with a lengthy injury list that included the usual suspects this year, along with P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall and Klay Thompson.

The game started off closer than expected under the circumstances, but the Spurs pulled ahead by 11 points by the end of the first frame. Victor Wembanyama was expected to play around 20 minutes in order to meet qualifications for league honors, and clearly wanted to make the most of his time. He was red hot throughout the night (which ended with him playing 26 minutes) and was a big reason the Spurs jumped out to an early lead.

In the second quarter, the Mavs flipped the script and dropped in 39 points to cut the deficit to three points at the half. Cooper Flagg had a massive game of his own, nearly matching Wembanyama. The Mavs carried their momentum into the third quarter, taking the lead on multiple occasions before the wheels came off. The Spurs scored on nine-straight possessions and almost instantly put the Mavs in a hole they were unable to climb out of.

The fourth quarter basically amount to garbage time, but it was nice to see the Mavs come close to holding steady (getting outscored in the quarter 31-27) despite AJ Johnson, Tyler Smitth and John Poulakidas leading the charge in the late going. When all was said and done, the Mavs had a solid offensive performance but had no answer for Wembanyama and ultimately got blasted heading into their final game of the season.

The Mavs won the turnover battle

The Mavs won the turnover battle

Dallas has had some awful game in terms of turnovers, occasionally with one or more players tallying five or more each. Tonight was an entirely different story. Both teams took care of the ball, but the Mavs had only seven turnovers against a very good team. Oddly, Dwight Powell accounted for three of them, which itself is an anomaly. In the end, it wasn’t enough to save the Mavs from a lopsided loss, but seeing them take care of the ball against a team that could have made them look silly was a decent consolation prize.

Cooper Flagg’s Rookie of the Year push

Over the past few games, Flagg is clearly being featured even moreso than usual in a final effort to win Rookie of the Year honors. After an 11-point outing last game against the Phoenix Suns, Flagg was back to his old self, pouring in 33 points on 52% shooting on 25 shots; nearly double the next closest Mav (Ryan Nembhard with 13 attempts). Throughout it all, Flagg continues to play within himself and the team’s gameplan. Nothing he did on Friday night felt forced and he even dished out five assists. It’s insane to me to think Flagg has a chance at missing out on ROY, and if nothing else, this burst over the past week will at least make for an eternal argument in the annals of NBA history if he doesn’t win the award.

Max Christie finding his shot

Mette Robertson recently covered a podcast that Cooper Flagg partook in. With him was Max Christie, who spoke about what he is learning from Klay Thompson. Particularly, Christie commented on getting his shot off quicker, a sentiment he reiterated in his postgame interview. Christie was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc, and 5-for-12 overall in Friday’s game. His shot looked good and was noticeably quicker. He even got one off from the corner with Wembanyama closing out on it, hitting nothing but net. That Christie is willing to learn and has one of the greatest shooters to learn from, is a positive sign going forward. The Mavs are at the bottom of the league in everything three-point related, and will need Christie to help reverse that trend next year and beyond.

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