DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Toronto Raptors by a final score of 139-129 on Sunday night. The victory represented Dallas' first win of the 2025-26 NBA season. After two and a half games of offensive woes (especially from a turnover standpoint), the Mavs found their rhythm in the third quarter against the Raptors. The Mavericks were trailing 66-64 at the half but found themselves with a 103-91 lead heading into the fourth quarter after their third quarter outburst.

The Mavs also only turned the ball over one time in the third quarter following 12 first half turnovers. Head coach Jason Kidd revealed his halftime message to the players while speaking to reporters after the win.

“Just being honest with them. There’s no tricks here,” Kidd said. “We have to take care of the ball. We were just making careless mistakes. One way you can do that is by talking and then the other way is by slowing down. I thought we slowed down there in the third quarter.

“We were able to connect the dots.”

Cooper Flagg steals the show

One of the electrifying moments of the third quarter came when Cooper Flagg threw down a massive and-one dunk with around three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Dallas did not look back after that, ultimately holding on for the victory.

Video via the Mavericks:

The dunk also led to Flagg recording a new career-high in points, as he scored his 19th point of the game as a result of the following free throw after the and-one. Flagg ended up scoring 22 points overall.

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The Mavs' offensive struggles were impossible to ignore through the first two games, but it seems as if they figured things out in the third quarter. It still wasn't a perfect night — the first two quarters were mediocre and the Mavs turned the ball over 20 times — but improvement was displayed without question.

“Yeah, he (Kidd) definitely did (address the Mavs' turnover issues at halftime),” Flagg told reporters. “Same thing we’ve been kind of dealing with, some stupid turnovers that we can’t make… We gotta be smarter with the ball. Honestly, when we were taking care of the ball and playing with good patience, we’re getting a lot of good looks.

“So the big thing he was saying was just ‘take care of it and we will get the shots that we can get.'”

Mavericks guard D'Angelo Russell receives his opportunity

D'Angelo Russell finally received enough playing time to truly make an impact, and he made the most of the opportunity. Russell's plus-26 plus-minus was the Mavs' overall highest mark. He added 24 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. The Mavs ultimately finished with three players with 20 or more points, as Flagg scored a career-high 22 points as mentioned while Anthony Davis had 25.

“I think we just turned the ball over (in the first half) and we’re down two points going into the half,” Russell said of the Mavs' offense breaking through in the third quarter. “Us knowing that if we don’t turn the ball over, we got a good chance to open this thing up. That was the result.”

The Mavericks will face a challenge on Monday. Dallas is set to host the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the second of a back-to-back. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 PM EST.