The Dallas Mavericks (22-45) got brushed aside on Friday by the Cleveland Cavaliers (41-26) at American Airlines Center in a 138-105 loss. Evan Mobley scored a game-high 29 points against a Mavericks front line consisting primarily of Marvin Bagley III and Dwight Powell. Cooper Flagg bounced back from a tough stretch of games after returning from his recent foot sprain for a team-high 25 points and five assists in the loss.
The Mavericks’ 12-8 start quickly turned into an 18-12 deficit with the first
of two 10-0 Cavaliers runs in the first quarter. Mobley abused the depleted Dallas frontcourt on his way to 16 first-quarter points on 7-of-9 shooting. Craig Porter Jr.‘s runout layup in transition forced Mavs head coach Jason Kidd into his second run-stopping timeout of the quarter with 2:41 left.
Cleveland shot 6-of-10 from 3-point range in the first and 60% from the floor in the first, essentially eliminating the Mavericks’ chances for an upset with a 38-21 lead after one.
Flagg, who has struggled since his return from a foot injury five games ago, keyed a 12-0 Mavericks run early in the second quarter to cut Cleveland’s lead to seven, down 40-33 after Ryan Nembhard’s 3-pointer on Flagg’s fourth assist of the game with 9:21 left in the half. But back-to-back sensational finishes at the rim by Donovan Mitchell pushed the Cavs’ lead back into double digits in response to the run.
Mitchell sliced and diced the Dallas defense in the second on the way to 10 points in the quarter. The Cavs found wide open driving lanes against a porous Mavericks interior defense whenever they wanted. On the other end, Flagg made some plays distributing the ball off drives but had a hard time once again finding the bottom of the net to start the game. He came in shooting just 35.1% from the floor in the five games since his return and managed just 2-of-8 in the first half against Cleveland.
The Cavaliers led 67-50 at the half, fed in part by 11 Dallas turnovers.
Flagg started the second half with seven quick points, including a massive tomahawk slam and his first 3-pointer of the game on back-to-back possessions four and a half minutes into the third. He didn’t elevate quite as high as he has on some of his other spectacular slams throughout his rookie year, which may point to the lingering effects of his foot injury still being worked all the way out, but he’s still a sight to see when he gets going downhill.
Flagg scored all 13 of his third-quarter points in the first seven minutes of the frame, but the damage was done in the first half. The Cavs led 108-83 going into the fourth and coasted to the 138-105 win. Flagg scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half, while Mitchell finished with 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting for Cleveland.
Breaking down the rookie wall
Flagg hasn’t been quite the same since his return from the foot injury that kept him out eight games in February. To his credit, he still makes the right play nine times out of 10 and still affects the game on the defensive end, but his offensive production has taken a hit since about the 45-game mark. There are times during recent games that remind nightly viewers of his first 10 games, when he had wide eyes and hesitated on offense. One came late in Thursday’s second quarter, when he had James Harden defending him in a one-on-one situation and passed out of it to Nembhard with six seconds left on the shot clock. You’d love to see Flagg take on the challenge there, especially with a smaller defender in front of him.
It seems an opportune time to remind oneself that the guy is 19 years old and that, in the grand scheme of things, the Rookie of the Year Award doesn’t mean anything for his development. Plenty of big-time players have hit the proverbial rookie wall. Flagg played in 37 games last year in his only season at Duke. The Mavericks played their 37th game of this season back on Jan. 6.
It also seems an opportune time to remind oneself of the moment surrounding Flagg as well. The lineups he’s playing with are held together by duct tape and bubble gum. He’s playing a lot of point guard by default because the Mavericks guards are, well, awful. He’s on a team that, frankly, doesn’t care about winning. These are not ideal circumstances to grow the young man’s game. They are slightly better for growing the young man’s character, which is one valuable attribute he carried into the league with him even at such a young age.
Don’t worry about Flagg all that much if you didn’t like what you were seeing until his high-flying act in Friday’s third quarter. Charlotte’s Kon Kneuppel can have his trophy, if indeed that is the way it shakes down. He’s had an amazing year. Flagg’s day in the sun is coming.
Three’s a crowd
Let’s not kid ourselves. The Mavericks never had a chance in this one. Cleveland has too many weapons, and without a couple of the bigger bodies in the lineup (P.J. Washington, ankle; Daniel Gafford, rest), Mobley’s big night was all but inevitable.
The Cavaliers didn’t need to put it on the Mavs behind the 3-point line under these circumstances, but they did anyway, shooting 18-of-38 (47.4%) from beyond the arc in the win. Dallas made just 9-of-32 (28.1%) on the other end.
Harden shot 3-of-7 from deep, Dennis Schroeder and Jaylon Tyson combined to make 4-of-7 off the bench, and even Mobley shot 2-of-4 for the Cavaliers. Keon Ellis went 3-for-5 as well. Cleveland made a combined 12-of-19 from 3-point land in the first and third quarters in the brutal thrashing of the Mavs.
