{"id":1361,"date":"2025-07-11T11:16:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1361\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T11:16:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:16:03","slug":"cooper-flagg-scores-10-in-summer-league-debut-as-mavs-edge-lakers-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1361\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg scores 10 in Summer League debut as Mavs edge Lakers | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Mavericks rookie and No 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg contributed 10 points, six rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes in his Las Vegas Summer League debut Thursday as the Mavericks edged the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> 87-85.<\/p>\n

Flagg added three steals and a block. He went scoreless during the second half and finished 5-for-21 from the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot up to my standard, but I\u2019m going to regroup; I\u2019m going to be all right,\u201d Flagg told ESPN postgame. \u201cThis is a new feeling, new environment, new teammates, but the guys settled down.\u201c<\/p>\n

Lakers second-year guard Bronny James missed a potential go-ahead trey in the closing seconds. Los Angeles\u2019 Cole Swider led all scorers with 22 points to go with 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Ryan Nembhard paced Dallas with 21 points and Miles Kelly followed with 17. The main attraction, though, was undeniable.<\/p>\n

Fans at the Thomas & Mack Center buzzed when Flagg got touches as well as during his early, sporadic defensive matchups against James, who scored his team\u2019s first five points and finished with eight.<\/p>\n

Speaking during halftime of ESPN\u2019s broadcast, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd lauded Flagg\u2019s moxie during his unofficial professional debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you have someone like Cooper who can handle, who can shoot, who can pass, you want the ball in his hands,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great decision- maker. He did that at Duke and also in high school. So, you get to see it tonight. He\u2019s going to have some mistakes. We all did; we all threw it in the stands once in a while, but I think just his poise as an 18-year-old is incredible.\u201c<\/p>\n

Dalton Knecht (15 points) and DJ Steward (14) also scored in double figures for the Lakers. Darius Bazley grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Lakers defenders double-teamed Flagg upon receiving a pass in the backcourt after Dallas won the opening tip. Addressing the sequence at halftime, Kidd said, \u201cI think that\u2019s out of respect.\u201c<\/p>\n

Flagg missed his first two field goal attempts but found his rhythm following a short breather in the first quarter. He scored six straight Mavericks points between the 4:35 and 2:49 mark, netting his first field goal on a running, one-hand dunk after securing a steal at the other end of the floor.<\/p>\n

Flagg shot 5-for-15 in the first half with three rebounds and one assist.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s handled the ball, he\u2019s gotten wide-open shots for teammates, he\u2019s finished,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cI think you\u2019ve seen a lot of what he can do in this league.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks rookie and No 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg contributed 10 points, six rebounds and four assists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}