INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Cooper Flagg has made his mark on basketball history during the recent back-to-back games of the Dallas Mavericks against the Los Angeles teams. On Friday night, Flagg dished out 11 assists, the most for an 18-year-old player, in the loss to the Lakers. Twenty-four hours later, Flagg became the youngest player to score 35 points in a game, an even more significant achievement as he led an injury-riddled Dallas team to a 114-110 victory over the Clippers at the Intuit Dome.
LeBron James is the other 18-year-old player who has managed to score 35 points in an NBA game, having done so twice as a rookie for the Cleveland Cavaliers in December 2023. James’ first 35-point game occurred when he was 18 years and 348 days old, five days older than Flagg on Saturday night. The highlight of Flagg’s game, with the highest score of his career, was a spectacular drive and a two-handed dunk over Clippers center Ivica Zubac. Flagg relentlessly attacked the basket throughout the game, making 13 of 22 field goals, including eight within three feet of the hoop.He’s only 18, but it seems like he’s been in this league before. He did it all tonight. He had the ball. You can call him a point guard or whatever, but he ran the offense for us. He drove the ball. The ball touched the paint. He got to the rim, got to the free throw line, stepped up and made free throws for us at the end. Just his composure on both ends [was impressive]. He competes at a very high level. You saw that tonight, but you saw it last night too.
Jason Kidd, Mavs coach
Flagg, who had struggled in the second night of his previous back-to-back games, started the game strong, scoring 12 points in the first quarter and 21 in the first half. He also finished strong, keeping his composure after a couple of costly turnovers in the final quarter to score eight points in the final 2 minutes and 47 seconds.Being aggressive right now is obviously the right thing for me, and that’s what the coach has emphasized to me. I have to be aggressive, and we’ll live with some of the mistakes, but you just have to be aggressive and trust all the work. My teammates trust me a lot, and I feel that. And when they trust me, it allows me to be free up there.
Cooper Flagg
It was Flagg’s most veteran teammate, 35-year-old Thompson, who made sure that the number 1 rookie had the opportunity to close out the game against the Clippers. Thompson scored 17 of his 23 points in the final quarter, the kind of impressive streak he was famous for while playing on four championship teams with the Golden State Warriors. Thompson, who was briefly listed as out due to right knee discomfort on the official injury report on Saturday before changing his mind after a swim in the ocean, was 6 of 8 from the field and 4 of 6 from the 3-point line in the final quarter. His 28-foot shot with 1:52 remaining gave the Mavs the final lead.Cooper’s potential is limitless. He has all the tools to be great. Sometimes I can’t believe he should be a freshman in college.
Klay Thompson, Mavericks guard
It’s been a tough start for Thompson and the Mavs, with a 6-15 record, who received more bad news a few minutes before the jump ball when starting forward P.J. Washington landed on a basketball and twisted his right ankle. Washington joined Kyrie Irving (knee surgery), Anthony Davis (managing calf injury), Daniel Gafford (managing ankle injury), and Dereck Lively II (foot) as key Mavs players who were unavailable against the Clippers. Despite the bad luck the Mavs have had, they got incredibly lucky when they got Flagg by winning the draft lottery despite only having a 1.8% chance.It felt like a relief. I haven’t been shooting the ball well in these first 20 games, at least not according to my standards. So when you have a night like that after the difficult start we’ve had, it just gives you relief to keep going. It really inspires me to be out there as much as I can.
Klay Thompson
It’s great to be a part of this. We can all witness what he’s going to do for a long time.
Klay Thompson
