{"id":117003,"date":"2026-01-09T16:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T16:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/117003\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T16:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T16:47:18","slug":"cooper-flagg-shines-but-mavericks-turnover-issue-dooms-them-in-close-loss-against-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/117003\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg shines but Mavericks\u2019 turnover issue dooms them in close loss against Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 The Mavericks<\/a> didn\u2019t turn the ball over for nearly the first six minutes of Thursday\u2019s rematch against the Utah Jazz.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden, an avalanche of turnovers came crashing down on the road team that needed to clean up a problem that\u2019s plagued them throughout the season.<\/p>\n

But somehow, it didn\u2019t stop them from being in yet another close game<\/a>. The Mavericks\u2019 turnover woes persisted in their 29th clutch game of the season until the waning seconds, leading to a 116-114 loss to the Jazz.<\/p>\n

Naji Marshall committed a turnover with 56.9 seconds left by passing an inbound pass toward the direction of Cooper Flagg<\/a>, but the pass was picked off by Brice Sensabaugh, leading to a layup that gave the Jazz a comfortable lead to cruise to a victory.<\/p>\n

Mavericks<\/p>\n

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The Mavericks committed 21 turnovers, including seven in the fourth that made escaping Delta Center with a win nearly impossible, especially without Anthony Davis<\/a> during the final two minutes. The Mavericks big man suffered a left hand injury<\/a> that forced him to miss the rest of the game. He finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Dallas entered the game averaging 15.6 turnovers per game, which is tied for the sixth-most in the NBA.<\/p>\n

After going almost half of the first quarter without a turnover, Brandon Williams tried to initiate a fast break and threw an errant pass that was intercepted by Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George, who was at the center of the Mavericks\u2019 continued turnover problem. Shortly after that play, Max Christie attempted to drive to the basket, but lost the ball to George, leading to a numbers disadvantage and another score for the Jazz.<\/p>\n

The self-inflicted mistakes compounded from there, and George played a significant part in turning Dallas over. The Lewisville native came away with three steals, to complement his offensive effort of 19 points and seven assists.<\/p>\n

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd<\/a> could only watch with 3:38 left in the second quarter as his team committed their 10th turnover of the second quarter. He walked onto the court with his head down and signaled a timeout to mitigate the problem.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the fix for their turnover woes?<\/p>\n

\u201cJust hold onto it maybe a second longer,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cTo start that fourth [quarter], we had two careless turnovers so we have to do better. That\u2019s the bottom line. … These are all things as young players we have to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas trailed by 14 at that point, but rallied to cut Utah\u2019s deficit because they cut down on their turnovers, committing just one more on the final play of the first half as Cody Williams poked the ball out from a driving Anthony Davis.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks only turned the ball over three times in the third quarter despite being short a point guard as Williams missed the rest of the game with an illness. He was one of four players three turnovers, joining Flagg, Ryan Nembhard and Klay Thompson.<\/p>\n

Thompson had a vintage shooting performance off the bench with 23 points, but made his fair share of mistakes, often trying to get in position to launch a 3-pointer. In the first half, Thompson faked his defender into the air and sidestepped to the left. Just as he attempted to shoot, the ball slipped out of his hands and wound up in the Mavericks\u2019 bench.<\/p>\n

Flagg played another phenomenal game in Utah despite the loss. He nearly recorded his first triple-double with 26 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals. He scored a career-high 42 points the last time the Mavericks were at Delta Center, but just as this time, the final result was a loss.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks will conclude their first road trip of the new year Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls\u2019 home game against Miami was postponed Thursday because moisture on the floor rendered the court at United Center unplayable.<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/a>Mavericks\u2019 Anthony Davis leaves game late in fourth quarter against Utah Jazz<\/a><\/p>\n

Davis\u2019 latest injury scare comes as he has been the focus of trade speculation.<\/p>\n

\"Indiana<\/a>Former Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle wins 1,000th game as Pacers top Hornets<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlisle, who coached Dallas to the 2011 title, is the 11th coach in league history to win 1,000 games.<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 The Mavericks didn\u2019t turn the ball over for nearly the first six minutes of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4643,4642,102,104,2582,103,4280,4281,3080,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-117003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-dallas-news","14":"tag-jason-kidd","15":"tag-mavericks","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}