Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving flipped the script on Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr. and the Houston Rockets (5-1) on Friday, pouring in 33 and 35 points, respectively, in the Dallas Mavericks’ (4-2) 116-111 win in the NBA Cup Group A game at American Airlines Center. In a season-opening 128-110 loss at the Rockets a week and a half ago, it was Durant and Smith who each scored 30-plus.
And, friends, it was electric down the stretch.
Daniel Gafford scored the Mavericks’ first two buckets in the paint,
but his turnover in between those buckets paved the way for Houston’s first bucket as well, a deep two-pointer near the top of the key by Fred Van Vleet. Flagg got all the way to the bucket through traffic three minutes into the game to cut the Houston lead to 7-6 early on. HIs turnaround jumper in the lane over Clint Capela less than a minute later gave Dallas an 8-7 lead before he took a steal and pulled up for a deep two of his own to see-saw the Mavs back in front, 10-9.
Flagg’s fourth bucket of the first quarter came with 7:26 left in the first and made it 12-11 Dallas, but the Rockets were shooting the lights out early, too. His fifth was a fading jumper over Kevin Durant and tied the game at 14-14 a minute later, as the early pace was breakneck on both sides. The kid came in averaging better than 25 points a game through his first four, and it was like he knew 25 wouldn’t be enough to keep up with the Rockets. Houston came in hot to start the season as a team, scoring 123 points per game (2nd in NBA), shooting better than 51% overall (2nd) and better than 40% from 3-point range (1st) to fuel their first 5-0 start since 2014.
A well-timed back cut for an easy bucket by Kyrie Irving, followed by a fast-bucket for Zaccharie Risacher after Flagg’s first steal of the game, gave the Mavs a healthy 27-20 lead at the end of one. Dallas shot 12-of-14 on two-point attempts in the first quarter and 61.9% overall for the frame.
The only thing the Mavericks didn’t do well early in the game was to finish off defensive possessions after one missed shot. Houston took advantage for an early 7-0 advantage in second-chance points. Dallas fed the struggling Houston offense early in the second quarter with a pair of turnovers and by granting the Rockets an extra possession after a missed free throw. Still, they found enough offense to keep hold of a five-point lead, 35-30, through Flagg’s rest minutes early in the second.
From there, Dallas hit a skid of six straight empty possessions on offense. Eventually, it led to a 13-3 Houston run that saw the Rockets take a 44-38 lead with 2:39 left in the first half. Jabari Smith Jr. dunked one home off a Risacher turnover to force first-year Mavs’ head coach Dusty May into a timeout to right the ship. Irving nailed his first 3-pointer of the game out of the timeout, but Flagg fouled Smith on a 3-pointer on the other end to make it 47-41 with 1:45 left in the half. Houston led 51-44 at the break as Dallas caught the turnover bug in the second quarter (seven in the quarter, 11 in the first half).
Second-quarter blues
The second quarter has been a problem for the Mavericks across the first six games of the season. In the season-opening 128-110 loss at the Rockets, Houston walloped the Mavs 38-12 in one of the worst second quarters you will ever see. It put Dallas in a hole they couldn’t dig out of — not even when they shot better than 70% from the field in the second half of that loss.
On Friday, the same team did the same thing to the Mavericks in the same quarter, this time outscoring Dallas 31-17 in the second. Dallas shot just 5-of-20 (25%) from the field and 3-of-11 (27.3%) from 3-point land in quarter number two on Friday. As noted above, the Mavs turned the ball over seven times in the frame as well. Flagg and Gafford coughed it up twice apiece in the second. That can’t happen against the top-rated offense in the league. You can’t feed snacks to the kind of offensive machine Houston is sporting thus far.
“They upped their physicality, their pressure a little bit,” Gafford said in his televised walk-off interview at the break. “It kind of rattled us.”
At least this time around, playing like cheeks in the second quarter only put the Mavericks in a seven-point hole.
Halftime adjustment: Feed Irving
We’ve praised May for his engagement level on the sidelines, his prowess as a tactician and his instinct for winning coach’s challenges (6-of-7 through 21 quarters of play) to start the year. Maybe his brilliant halftime adjustment on Friday went a little something like, “simply feed Irving.”
The smoothest 34-year-old in the league popped off out of halftime for eight points in the first two minutes of the second half, hitting a couple of 3-pointers to bring the Mavs to within three, down 55-52.
But this Rockets team doesn’t let go of the lead easily. Smith and Kevin Durant, who scored 30 points apiece in these teams’ first meeting this year, seemed to have an answer each time the Mavs threatened. the pair combined for eight quick points to get the Houston lead back to 66-59 before Van Vleet hit his second 3-ball of the game to make it 69-60 midway through the third. Then Durant exploded to the rim for a dunk through the wanting defense of Gafford and PJ Washington to give the Rockets their first double-digit lead of the night, up 71-61 with 5:02 left in the third. Durant had 17 points at the time on 7-of-13 shooting.
Half-mast
After Flagg combusted for a game-high 12 points in the first quarter, he went missing through the second and third quarters. He got up just six shots in the middle two quarters. That kind of thing was understandable in his rookie season, but it just can’t happen this year.
Flagg’s gravity is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the NBA. The Mavericks have to use it to their advantage on as many possessions as humanly possible.
Flagg did appear to get back into a little offensive rhythm late in the third. He found Walter Clayton Jr. for his first 3-pointer of the game with 1:19 left in the frame, then knocked down a rhythm jumper the next time down to pull the Mavs to within 80-73. Dallas trailed 84-76 going into the fourth, as Flagg led the Mavericks with 22 and seven.
It certainly didn’t help that every role player not named Risacher turned in stinker after stinker up and down the roster as well.
Down the stretch
Irving opened up the fourth quarter the same way he did the third. He got to the bucket through the tough defense of Amen Thompson, then pulled up for one of those patented 3-balls to catch the Houston defense off guard early in the shot clock. All of a sudden, Dallas was down just 86-85 with 8:46 to play.
Of all people, Caleb Martin tied the game, 88-88, the next time down with a corner 3-pointer off a ball reversal — his second deep ball of the game. Irving, who was feeling it on a level few will attain in their lifetime, launched a long one from somewhere near Plano on the Mavs’ next possession. It went down with seven minutes to play, and Dallas had climbed the mountain. Irving had poured in 20 in the second half to that point.
When Irving went to the bench for a breather, Flagg took over on a couple of key possessions with under four minutes to play and the Mavs nursing a one-possession lead. He hit a floater in the lane, then Clint Capella was whistled for goaltending on a similar attempt the next time down, giving Dallas a 100-96 lead with 3:28 to play.
It was getting nittier and grittier. This was heady territory for your little Mavs, even considering Friday’s game was just the sixth of the young season.
And both Irving and Flagg responded to the huge moment. Flagg found Irving for a mid-range pull-up with 2:08 left, before Flagg completed a 3-point play the next time down to make it 105-100 with just 1:40 left. Capella got called for his second goal-tend of the fourth quarter with 1:18 to play on a hooking attempt from Daniel Gafford, and Dallas clung to a 107-102 lead. The big fella had gathered 16 tough points after that bucket, but limped off the court after turning an ankle just seconds later.
He appeared to be headed to the locker room, but returned just seconds later and made a pair of huge free throws with 11.3 seconds on the clock to help the Mavericks close out the upset win. Flagg and Irving combined for 27 points in the fourth as well. They just refused to let the Mavericks lose, leading the Mavs to 31 points in the final eight minutes of play. And, hey, some poor free-throw shooting from Durant and Thompson in the clutch didn’t hurt, either. Durant led the Rockets with 28 points in the loss, and Smith added 22 more.
