Cooper Flagg in Summer League: Mavericks rookie drops 31 points after rough debut, but can't lead Dallas past San Antonio
Though he more than lived up to expectations this time out, it still wasn't enough to get past reigning No. 2 overall pick Dylan Harper and the San Antonio Spurs.
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The Spurs jumped ahead to grab a 76-69 win over the Dallas Mavericks in the Las Vegas Summer League on Saturday afternoon in Nevada. That dropped the Mavericks, who edged out the Los Angeles Lakers in their debut on Thursday, to 1-1 on the outing. Flagg finished with 31 points and four rebounds, and shot 10 of 20 from the field and 3 of 8 from behind the arc.
After a slow first quarter, the reigning No. 1 overall draft pick finally came alive. He dropped 12 of his 15 first-half points in the second quarter while leading the Mavericks out of a double-digit hole. He shot 4 of 10 from the field and 1 of 3 from behind the arc.
Though it was only halfway through the game, his numbers were already significantly better than his debut earlier this week. Flagg dropped just 10 points, went 5 of 21 from the field and didn't make a single 3-pointer in the Mavericks' win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday.
Though the Spurs jumped out to a 6-0 run to start the second half, Flagg and the Mavericks responded immediately. Flagg even threw down a perfect alley-oop on a pass from Ryan Nembhard that he was calling for just about the entire way up the floor.
But even with that, the Spurs pushed their lead back to 12 points at its peak before taking a 10-point advantage into the final quarter. But Flagg easily threw down a one-handed dunk in the final seconds of the period.
That, though, wasn't enough to spark another comeback. The Spurs opened the final quarter on a 12-6 burst and pushed their lead to 16 points briefly before cruising to the seven-point win. Flagg, however, didn't slow down at all. He drilled a contested 3-pointer and came so close to throwing down what would've been the poster of the first three days of Summer League over Osayi Osifo.
David Jones-Garcia led the Spurs with 21 points off the bench. Harper added 16 points and six rebounds, though he went 0 of 4 from behind the arc. He was on a restriction and played only 17 minutes while dealing with a groin strain. Osifo was the only other Spurs player to hit double figures with his 12 points.
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Flagg was the majority of the Mavericks' offense. Miles Kelly was the only other player to hit double figures for Dallas. He finished with 11 points and two rebounds. Matthew Cleveland added eight points off the bench.
Flagg and the Mavericks will be back in action Monday against the Charlotte Hornets.
A blow-by-blow recap of Mavericks-Spurs, with Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper facing off, is below.
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