140-133 loss to the Utah Jazz<\/a> on Monday night.<\/p>\n\u201cObviously we didn\u2019t win. So it’s tough for me to want to be happy, or any of that, but obviously it\u2019s a success,\u201d said Flagg, who had a bag of ice on his ankle after rolling it at the end of regulation.<\/p>\n
Flagg also became just the fifth rookie to record 40 points, five rebounds and five assists in the last 15 years as he finished with seven board and six assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more time he spends on the floor, the more he sees, the better he gets. He displayed it all tonight,\u201d Dallas coach Jason Kidd said.<\/p>\n
Flagg has been playing his best basketball the past few weeks as the No. 1 overall draft pick has averaged 25.7 points in the last seven games. He’s also playing aggressive enough to get to the line and went 15 for 20 against Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s come a long way from the start of the season, so I\u2019m proud of that fourth quarter,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new game … but I am getting more and more comfortable … and just settling in, honestly, just being myself and letting the game come to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and made a savvy play to get the game into overtime when he missed a free throw on purpose with such a big carom that teammate Max Christie got the rebound with 3.9 seconds remaining and was fouled.<\/p>\n
With Anthony Davis out and Dallas missing several other teammates to injuries, this game may be a harbinger of things to come as Flagg becomes a centerpiece of the Mavericks’ offense.<\/p>\n
“We were going to Coop. He was killing them the whole game, so they finally tried to double him.” P.J. Washington said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me at all. I know exactly what he\u2019s capable of. He\u2019s a special player so there will be a lot more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flagg also tied Mark Aguirre for the most points by a rookie in Mavs history as he begins to make his mark on the franchise. But he couldn’t stop thinking of what he could have done to get the win despite the throbbing ankle. The Jazz made a late 11-0 run and then dominated in overtime as Flagg didn’t score a basket in the extra period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gotta be better. I had a couple of dumb turnovers, missed a couple easy ones, but I gotta be better, executing down the stretch like that,\u201d Flagg said.<\/p>\n
Setting records might be nice but Flagg feels it just means he’s consistently improving and that’s been his goal all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really focused on a lot of that stuff (the records). I\u2019m more just focused on being present, day to day, and trying to get better and and getting our team as many wins as we can,\u201d Flagg said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY \u2013 Cooper Flagg scored the most points by an 18-year-old in NBA history, but he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[5554,761,763,3013,175021,48782,355,59053,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-351598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-jason-kidd","11":"tag-lebron-james","12":"tag-mark-aguirre","13":"tag-max-christie","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-pj-washington","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351598","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=351598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}