Cooper Flagg Leads Mavs to Win: “This Is the Foundation We’ll Build On”
At just 18 years old, the rookie phenom writes his name into NBA history – guiding Dallas out of its early-season slump and electrifying the home crowd
The Dallas Mavericks’ first win of the season belongs to Cooper Flagg. In only his third NBA game, the No. 1 overall pick delivered a breakout performance, thrilling fans at the American Airlines Center with poise and confidence well beyond his years.
Flagg finished with 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists in a 139-129 win over the Toronto Raptors, giving the Mavs and their fans a much-needed spark after two opening losses.
The highlight of the night came midway through the third quarter: Flagg caught a pass in transition, covered the length of the floor in two explosive strides, and threw down a poster dunk over Sandro Mamukelashvili, drawing the foul and igniting the arena.
When Cooper gets going like that, we all feed off his energy. It’s contagious – you just want to see him keep doing great things.
D’Angelo Russell
According to ESPN Research, at 18 years and 309 days, Flagg became the fifth-youngest player in NBA history to score at least 20 points in a game – trailing only Jermaine O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and LeBron James. Even more impressively, alongside Bryant, he’s the only under-19 player to top 20 points without committing a single turnover.
This is the foundation we want to build on. We’ve got to keep growing and improving, but tonight we finally showed who we can be.
Cooper Flagg
Beyond the stat sheet, Flagg’s maturity stood out. His decision-making, composure in traffic, and instinctive reads in crunch time gave Dallas exactly what it had been missing early in the season – a sense of direction, belief, and youthful fire.
For the Mavericks, this might just be one win in October.
For Cooper Flagg, it felt like the beginning of something much bigger.