No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks will tip off the 2025-26 NBA regular season against No. 2 pick Dylan Harper and the San Antonio Spurs, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line on Substack.
The league is expected to unveil the complete game and TV schedule for every team on Aug. 14. With the announcement looming next week, some key matchups have started to surface based on the provisional schedule set by the NBA.
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The Mavericks will reportedly face the Golden State Warriors as part of a five-game schedule on Christmas Day, according to Shams Charania of ESPN. He will become the first No. 1 pick to play on Christmas Day in his first season since LeBron James in 2003.
Flagg is expected to garner tremendous hype after a sensational freshman campaign at Duke. Though the Mavericks will likely be without Kyrie Irving for much of the season, the team should still be featured heavily nationally, with Anthony Davis and other notable players on the roster.
The 18-year-old debuted with the Mavericks last month in the NBA Summer League, averaging 20.5 points, five rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals on 35.7% shooting from the field. He produced 31 points in his second and final appearance on July 12.
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Flagg enters the season as the front-runner to win Rookie of the Year, according to most sportsbooks. He should have plenty of opportunities to play and should be in store for a productive year with a competitive roster around him.
This article originally appeared on Rookie Wire: Stein: Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg to debut against Dylan Harper, Spurs