{"id":7966,"date":"2025-10-29T20:53:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=7966"},"modified":"2025-10-29T20:53:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:53:38","slug":"cooper-flagg-ignites-mavericks-offense-in-first-nba-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=7966","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg ignites Mavericks&#8217; offense in first NBA win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Tim MacMahon<span class=\"timestamp \">Oct 26, 2025, 11:59 PM ET<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\"><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009<\/li>\n<li>Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks<\/li>\n<li>Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>DALLAS &#8212; Rookie <a data-player-guid=\"6cf6ea11-b3e4-35fd-bb91-f9f6caf6e2c8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/5041939\/cooper-flagg\">Cooper Flagg<\/a> caught the look-ahead pass as he crossed the half-court line, took one dribble and a couple of more long strides and launched for a spectacular and-1 slam dunk.<\/p>\n<p>The finish over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/tor\/toronto-raptors\">Toronto Raptors<\/a>&#8216; <a data-player-guid=\"e9df9e2a-50ac-901b-9090-1201532b81e8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4278580\/sandro-mamukelashvili\">Sandro Mamukelashvili<\/a> elicited a roar from the crowd at the American Airlines Center, a far cry from the scattered boos heard during the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"f00d1f4e-4ce6-d581-466c-5b52531cf7ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/dal\/dallas-mavericks\">Dallas Mavericks<\/a>&#8216; 0-2 start to the season. It was the highlight of an excellent all-around performance in the first NBA victory for Flagg, the No. 1 draft pick who finished Sunday night&#8217;s game with 22 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fans have showed up for the first three games, and I thought tonight was really the first time we gave &#8217;em something to be excited for and be on their feet for,&#8221; Flagg said after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/boxscore\/_\/gameId\/401809966\">139-129<\/a> win over the Raptors.<\/p>\n<p>The Mavs snapped out of their early-season offensive funk with seven Dallas players scoring in double figures, led by 25 points from power forward <a data-player-guid=\"dcf63163-4dbf-c59d-1920-3ecc2f8bd5fb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/6583\/anthony-davis\">Anthony Davis<\/a> and 24 from guard <a data-player-guid=\"155978bc-3f36-925f-c5b2-b0f15c5a2a13\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/3136776\/dangelo-russell\">D&#8217;Angelo Russell<\/a>, who added a team-high six assists while thriving as the sixth man a game after sitting out the entire second half due to a coach&#8217;s decision.<\/p>\n<p>But the spotlight, as it often will this season, shined brightest on Flagg. According to ESPN Research, at 18 years and 309 days old, Flagg became the fifth-youngest player in NBA history to score at least 20 points in a game, trailing only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/bio\/_\/id\/615\/jermaine-oneal\">Jermaine O&#8217;Neal<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/bio\/_\/id\/110\/kobe-bryant\">Kobe Bryant<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/532\/tracy-mcgrady\">Tracy McGrady<\/a> and <a data-player-guid=\"1f6592b3-ff53-d321-8dc5-6038d48c1786\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/1966\/lebron-james\">LeBron James<\/a>. Flagg joined Bryant as the only players to score at least 20 points without committing a turnover in a game before turning 19.<\/p>\n<p>Flagg&#8217;s fingerprints were all over Dallas&#8217; 26-9 run in the third quarter, a stretch in which it turned a seven-point deficit into a double-digit lead. He had seven points and three assists during the spurt, punctuating it with his poster dunk that prompted teammates to leap off the bench to celebrate.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-with-table float-r\">\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" data-text-contract=\"-\" data-text-expand=\"+\" data-fix-cols=\"0\" data-behavior=\"responsive_table\" class=\"inline-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th \/>\n<th>Age<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr class=\"last\">\n<td>Jermaine O&#8217;Neal<\/td>\n<td>18 years, 101 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"last\">\n<td>Kobe Bryant<\/td>\n<td>18 years, 133 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"last\">\n<td>Tracy McGrady<\/td>\n<td>18 years, 265 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"last\">\n<td>LeBron James<\/td>\n<td>18 years, 303 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"last\">\n<td>Cooper Flagg<\/td>\n<td>18 years, 309 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;When he&#8217;s getting the crowd going like that, our team feeds off it,&#8221; said Russell, who assisted Flagg on the and-1 dunk. &#8220;Everybody wants to see him do great. So when he&#8217;s performing like that, it&#8217;s contagious.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dallas center <a data-player-guid=\"a0268e7a-137e-3749-b75c-bedefd1177e4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4683688\/dereck-lively-ii\">Dereck Lively II<\/a>, who started the fast break with a defensive rebound and an outlet pass, offered his take.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As soon as he took off, I knew it was going to be butter,&#8221; Lively said of Flagg. &#8220;He&#8217;s bringing his energy, getting him above the rim. The whole crowd loves it. That brings us alive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After entering the game ranked last in the league in offensive efficiency, the Mavs found the formula needed for them to play well on offense while superstar guard <a data-player-guid=\"4fb2e3fc-ad79-d9bc-ddd9-bbb09f29ead3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/6442\/kyrie-irving\">Kyrie Irving<\/a> recovers from a torn ACL he suffered in March. Dallas played fast and with force, scoring 25 fast-break points and 70 points in the paint while going 29-of-39 from the free throw line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It feels great. I&#8217;m excited,&#8221; Flagg said. &#8220;We want to build off tonight, use it as a baseline. This team needs to just keep building and getting better.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/46741146\/cooper-flagg-ignites-mavericks-offense-first-nba-win\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tim MacMahonOct 26, 2025, 11:59 PM ET Close Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009 Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM DALLAS &#8212; Rookie Cooper Flagg caught the look-ahead pass as he crossed the half-court line, took one dribble and a couple of more long strides and launched for &#8230; <a title=\"Cooper Flagg ignites Mavericks&#8217; offense in first NBA win\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=7966\" aria-label=\"Read more about Cooper Flagg ignites Mavericks&#8217; offense in first NBA win\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Cooper-Flagg-ignites-Mavericks-offense-in-first-NBA-win.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7968,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions\/7968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}