The Dallas Mavericks have been playing their best basketball of the season of late, though they did fall short in a 140-133 OT loss to the Jazz Monday night. In what was a fun high octane game even though Dallas couldn’t pull off the win, Cooper Flagg left Mavs’ fans with a silver lining with his performance.
His game high 42 points were accompanied by seven rebounds, six assists, a steal and two blocks. In and of itself, it was a terrific performance to behold. Wrapped inside that performance are
a number of noteworthy findings, including some record-tying and record setting numbers.
His 24 first-half points were his personal career best for any half, and it was clear at halftime that something special was likely taking place. Sure enough, when the final buzzer sounded, he had tallied a new career high in scoring with 42 points. That offensive burst puts him in exclusive company in Mavericks history. Flagg is now only the fourth Maverick rookie to have a 40-point game, joining Mark Aguirre (1981), Jay Vincent (1982; he did it twice) and Rodrigue Beaubois (2010).
Beyond personal achievements and team achievements, Flagg also made NBA history (again).
Flagg is now the youngest player in NBA history, and the first 18-year-old, to score 40 points in an NBA game. Perhaps cooler still, Flagg didn’t need the OT period to reach 40 points, as he had that locked down in Regulation, chipping in two more in OT before all was said and done.
Somehow the Flagg-as-point-guard experiment seems like a hallucinatory dream in some far off reality. We are now witness to a player who looks like he has been in the league for well more than just a few months and who is not only comfortable taking on a key role, but growing and improving every time out. If Flagg can keep this up, he has every chance to do bigger and better things still, perhaps sooner than anyone could have expected.
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