Cooper Flagg, Mavericks to face Dylan Harper, Spurs in rare opening-night matchup
No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks will open the regular season against No. 2 pick Dylan Harper and the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA announced on Tuesday.
With the complete game and broadcast schedule for the 2025-26 regular season expected to be unveiled on Thursday, several matchups were announced early by the league. Among them: Flagg and the Mavericks hosting Harper and the Spurs on Oct. 22 (9:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN).
The scheduled matchup is set to mark the second time since 1966 that the top two picks in the same draft will face each other in the first career regular-season game for both players. The previous instance was in 2015 (Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell).
Flagg is expected to garner tremendous hype after a sensational freshman campaign at Duke. Though the Mavericks will likely be without Kyrie Irving for much of the season, they should still be featured heavily nationally, with Anthony Davis and other notable players on the roster.
The Mavericks will be showcased on Christmas Day as part of a five-game schedule across ABC and ESPN. They are also tapped to play the New York Knicks in an inaugural slate to air on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on NBC and Peacock (Jan. 19).
Flagg enters the season as the front-runner to win Rookie of the Year, according to most sportsbooks. He should have plenty of opportunities to play in front of a national audience and should be in store for a productive year with a competitive roster around him.
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