{"id":61024,"date":"2025-11-22T20:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/61024\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T20:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T20:38:00","slug":"cooper-flaggs-career-high-29-points-help-mavs-flip-script-for-close-win-over-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/61024\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg\u2019s career-high 29 points help Mavs flip script for close win over Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an unflattering commentary on any NBA team\u2019s season to deem November games must-win, but that is the Mavericks<\/a>\u2019 reality.<\/p>\n

Fortuitously for Dallas, it rallied from a woeful first half behind rookie Cooper Flagg<\/a> and pulled out a 118-115 victory over 2-14 New Orleans on Friday night in American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Saturday\u2019s quick-turn home game against Memphis also looms as important. Why? Because the cushy home-heavy schedule Dallas (5-12) has failed to exploit is about to get road-onerous. <\/p>\n

Flagg led the Mavericks with a career-high 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists, but it was ex-Pelican Naji Marshall\u2019s 3-pointer with 30.7 second left that gave Dallas a 116-115 lead.<\/p>\n

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After P.J. Washington Jr. (24 points, nine rebounds) blocked a 3-pointer by Pels rookie Jeremiah Fears, Max Christie sank two free throws with 10.8 seconds left, his 22nd and 23rd points. The Mavericks forced New Orleans into a pair of 3-point misses to hold on for just their fourth clutch win in 13 attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe character of this group is that they\u2019re going to compete,\u201d said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd<\/a>, whose team once again played without a slew of injured players, and this time without D\u2019Angelo Russell, due to illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re never out of the game, this group,\u201d he said. \u201cIllness, injury, they trust each other, and you saw that again at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flagg\u2019s previous career high was 26 points, on Nov. 10 against Milwaukee. He missed Dallas\u2019 last game, a two-point loss to the Knicks, with an illness.<\/p>\n

Although Flagg\u2019s 12-of-19 overall shooting and team-high 12 fourth-quarter points were impressive, Kidd commended the 18-year-old for his patience. Without Russell, and with Brandon Williams shooting 1 for 12, Flagg ran the offense down the stretch. <\/p>\n

Kidd said he spoke to Flagg at halftime and emphasized that he needed to be more assertive and go to the basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think also having my teammates, guys like Max, when they get everyone involved like that, it just spreads the court so much more and gives more lanes,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cSo I think just listening to what J-Kidd said, he knows the game at such a high level, gotta listen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six of Flagg\u2019s points came in the final five minutes and two of his assists occurred in the final 2:40, including on Marshall\u2019s game-winning 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can say that was a no-point-guard lineup or you could say Cooper was the point guard,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cHowever you want to write it, I\u2019ll leave that to you guys.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Mavericks trailed by as much as 53-38, but roared back with a 26-11 run to start the third quarter, taking their first lead since the opening minutes, 75-74, on a Flagg dunk.<\/p>\n

The score was tied at 85 entering the fourth quarter and the lead pingponged down the stretch.<\/p>\n

With New Orleans leading 107-105 and Flagg at the free throw line, Fears goaded Marshall into an ill-advised technical foul, which the Pelicans turned into a 3-point margin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt the \u2018T\u2019 was needed to get the defense in gear,\u201d Kidd joked of Marshall. \u201cHe\u2019ll tell you that helped us get three stops in a row, so we can go with that. But I love his competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mavericks persevered, never mind that this was a matchup of two Western Conference bottom-dwellers. Any win is welcome at this point. Entering Friday, Dallas was 3-8 in AAC, where it had lost five of its last six.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks had been outscored at home by an average of 117.8 to 112.9, but at least they could tell themselves that many of this season\u2019s losses were winnable.<\/p>\n

They are now 4-9 in clutch games, which the NBA defines as games in which the margin is five points or fewer during the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting better and better each game,\u201d Christie said. \u201cThe encouraging part is we\u2019ve lost our lost games by one or two possessions, for the most part. Obviously, not winning is never fun, but we\u2019re right there.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Mavericks were coming off a 113-111 Wednesday home loss to the Knicks in which Williams was controversially called for an offensive foul in the final seconds as he seemingly hit the tying shot. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes this league can be cruel, or you lose some games that you felt that you could have won,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cBut it has shown that we can stay together through a tough time and find a way to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t helped that the Mavericks haven\u2019t gained meaningful traction in American Airlines Center. After Saturday\u2019s game against Memphis, 13 of Dallas\u2019 17 games will have occurred in AAC.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks likely will rue their home failures when the schedule dramatically flips starting Monday night, with a game at Miami to start a four-game road trip.<\/p>\n

That trip also begins road stretches of seven of the next 10 games, and 10 of the next 14.<\/p>\n

Perhaps even more formidable is the step-up in competition, upcoming opponents that include the 11-4 Lakers, 11-3 Denver (twice), 15-1 Oklahoma City and 13-2 Detroit.<\/p>\n

Dallas\u2019 next 11 games are against opponents that entered Friday night with a combined 93-55 record (62.8%).<\/p>\n

Sloppiness also continues to be an issue for Dallas, which entered Friday night averaging 17.6 turnovers at home. On Friday they surpassed that total with four minutes left, with a one-point margin at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurnovers, obviously, not even at the end of the game, but just throughout the game,\u201d Christie said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be able to value those possessions a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Mark Cuban\u2019s third act with Mavs begins, it\u2019s time for Dallas to start from scratch<\/a>Mavericks\u2019 heavy dose of clutch games offers chance for growth: \u2018We\u2019re figuring it out\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an unflattering commentary on any NBA team\u2019s season to deem November games must-win, but that is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4642,102,104,2582,103,4281,3080,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-61024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-cooper-flagg","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-mavericks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61024","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=61024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}