Your bag is empty.
Cooper Flagg is just 18 years old, but he’s been a fantastic NBA player. On Monday night, he officially arrived on the scene.
Flagg had gotten off to a bit of a slow start, at least relative to expectations. Many thought he’d be scoring 20 points a night from the jump, but that wasn’t the case. He eventually got up to speed and has lately been one of the better basketball players in the entire league.
That culminated in a dominant outing in a loss for the Dallas Mavericks.
Cooper Flagg’s Career-High Comes in Explosive Fashion
There have been a few rookies to score more than Cooper Flagg’s 42 points in a single game in NBA history. That ranks outside the top 25, but those players were pretty much all older than Flagg. He’s just 18, and he plays in a much harder era than Wilt Chamberlain, Elvin Hayes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson, to name a few.
Flagg dropped in 42 points, making him the youngest player ever to hit the 40-point threshold, on 13/27 shooting. He was aided by getting 20 free throws. It wasn’t just a scoring outburst, though.
The multi-talented forward also added seven rebounds, six assists, two blocks, and a steal in the overtime loss to the Utah Jazz. Former Duke big man Kyle Filipowski, who did not play with Flagg at Duke, added 25 points and nine rebounds for Utah.
Flagg has really come alive. He’s scoring over 25 points per game in his last seven contests, which is more in line with the unfair but obviously not inaccurate standard people expected him to meet this year. “It’s come a long way from the start of the season, so I’m proud of that fourth quarter,” Flagg said per ESPN after scoring 12 points in the fourth.
“It’s a new game … but I am getting more and more comfortable … and just settling in, honestly, just being myself and letting the game come to me.”
“We were going to Coop. He was killing them the whole game, so they finally tried to double him,” Dallas star P.J. Washington said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all. I know exactly what he’s capable of. He’s a special player, so there will be a lot more to come.”
Cooper Flagg Remains Displeased
Despite the career outing, Cooper Flagg is not happy with the result. The forward helped force overtime by missing a free throw on purpose, allowing teammate Max Christie to get the rebound and get fouled.
But because they didn’t keep the momentum going and earn a win, Flagg said, “Obviously, we didn’t win. So, it’s tough for me to want to be happy or any of that. But obviously, it’s a success.”
This comes after Flagg remarked on how much losing the Mavericks were doing early on. They were a Finals team two years ago that got destroyed by one ill-advised trade and a bevy of injuries, but now they look to be more of a rebuilding team with Flagg at the center of it. Still, the losses don’t sit right, and last night’s contest didn’t sit right despite the box score.
Flagg himself took responsibility for the loss. “I got to be better. I had a couple of dumb turnovers, missed a couple easy ones, but I got to be better, executing down the stretch like that,” the rookie said. “I’m not really focused on a lot of that stuff (the records). I’m more just focused on being present, day to day, and trying to get better and getting our team as many wins as we can.”
So far, the Mavericks are 10-17 and not in the playoff picture in the Western Conference.
Related Posts
