Cooper Flagg scored 32 points in the Mavericks’ season opener, but Houston ran Dallas off the floor 128-110 on Wednesday night. Afterward, the former Duke star didn’t sugarcoat it, pointing to poor organization and defensive breakdowns, as first reported by ClutchPoints.
Flagg said the Mavs “got stagnant” when the Rockets went on their run and “weren’t getting back in transition.” That run was brutal: Houston won the second quarter 38-12 and led 70-38 at halftime, per CBS Texas. Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr. scored 30 apiece, and Alperen Sengun added 23 points and 10 rebounds. Durant even posterized Flagg along the way.
The IAHHM Take
Here’s the part that shouldn’t get lost in the score: those 32 points are the most ever by a teenager in a season opener, topping Lamar Odom’s 30 from his 1999 debut, according to Heavy, citing SI research. Flagg went 10-of-17 from the field and 11-of-13 at the line, and he scored 23 after halftime on 8-of-9 shooting.
The flip side: he was 0-for-3 and a minus-21 in that second quarter. That’s the second-year jump in one box score. The talent is already there. The next level is controlling the game when it starts slipping away.
Carolina fans watched him do that in Durham, and Dallas has new pieces around him. Dusty May made his debut after replacing the fired Jason Kidd, and Kyrie Irving scored 15 in his first regular-season game since tearing his ACL in March 2025.
Dallas visits Indiana on Friday, a Pacers team that didn’t sign any of its eight extension-eligible players this month.
Is Flagg a top-15 player by the end of this season, or does he need Kyrie fully back before Dallas looks like a real threat?
Source: ClutchPoints
