The Dallas Mavericks keep on losing. On Monday night, they suffered their 14th loss of the 2025-26 season in 19 contests, with the Mavs coming up just short against the Miami Heat, 106-102. Now, the Mavericks will have three full days off before they take the court again on Friday night in what will be a huge showdown against Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA Cup action.
The Mavericks will be the visiting team for that contest, so that game will not be a homecoming for Doncic. Nonetheless, the Doncic subplot will be the most prominent for that matchup, as this would be the first time that he will be facing his former team following the firing of Nico Harrison from the Mavs' general manager post.
However, for ballyhooed Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg, this upcoming clash against the Lakers is not going to be anything more than another game for him.
“I would say to me, it's another game. I know there's gonna be a lot of other things that go into that game & through a lot of these guys' mindsets & whatnot. For me, it's just another game. I'm trying to survive day by day, take everything one day at a time, one game at at time. Right now, we're just trying to find ways to win,” Flagg said, per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.
Flagg wasn't a member of the organization yet anyway when the Mavericks traded away Doncic, so this stand of his makes sense. But with Dallas looking at him as the star player who'll be taking them out of these doldrums they're in, he might learn firsthand that this will never be just another game from the perspective of the Mavs fanbase.
Luka Doncic will always be out for blood during Lakers-Mavericks games
Doncic is always going to be taking the high road, but knowing how much of a competitor he is, he is always going to be bringing something extra whenever he comes up against the Mavericks, the team that doubted him so much to the point of trading him away.
As for Flagg, he's still in the early stages of his development as a star, so it may be a bit unfair to expect him to get the Mavericks back to winning ways consistently in his rookie campaign.
