The Dallas Mavericks welcomed back rookie star Cooper Flagg to the lineup on Thursday against the Orlando Magic, a game that came down to execution in the clutch. It was the Magic who hung on late to pull off the 115-114 win after Wendell Carter Jr.‘s late-game dunk.
But Cooper Flagg had clutch moments of his own, helping the Mavericks to a four-point in the final 37 seconds of the game. Flagg scored on an and-one to give the Mavericks control of the game. But they could not hold on to the lead, surrendering a 3-point shot from Jalen Suggs right before Carter’s dunk.
Following the game, Flagg spoke about his comfort level when it comes to playing in crunch-time situations, as per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.
“I would say I’m pretty comfortable. Obviously we’ve been in a lot of those situations through this season now,” Flagg said. “We haven’t won a ton of them, but it’s all learning experiences for us right now. That’s what we got to take away from it. We got to learn, we got to get better. We’re going to be in a ton of these positions moving forward, into next year. Just taking that from it and learning. I’m pretty comfortable at this point.”
Flagg finished the game with a well-rounded stat line of 18 points, five rebounds, six assists, one steal and four blocked shots in his return from injury. He played 26 minutes and shot 7-of-22 from the field, 1-of-4 from the 3-point line and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line.
One of the frontrunners for the Rookie of the Year Award alongside Kon Knueppel, Flagg had been sidelined since before the All-Star break due to a foot injury.
He’s appeared in 50 games this season at a little over 33 minutes per game. He’s been averaging 20.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals with splits of 47.8 percent shooting from the field, 30.1 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 80.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
