Cooper Flagg’s night changed sharply after halftime, though the scoreboard had already begun making the distinction academic. He scored 12 points while shooting 4-for-14 in the first half, then made 4 of 6 attempts for 14 points after the break.
The final line was impressive—26 points, 12 rebounds and four assists—but the Dallas Mavericks still fell 135-111 to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday at American Airlines Center.
That is the useful tension in Flagg’s preseason performance. The young forward showed he could adjust, produce around a difficult shooting start and affect the game beyond scoring. He also showed how much Dallas is asking one creator to supply when Atlanta applied sustained pressure and the supporting offense became unreliable.
Flagg’s foul-line work kept the individual night from being governed entirely by his field-goal shooting. He made 8 of 9 free throws, including two with 2:15 left in the second quarter, and added three offensive rebounds, two steals and a block. Those extra contributions mattered.
Even when his field-goal attempts were not falling, he found ways to extend possessions, defend and get himself to the stripe.
Dallas’s second-quarter scoring dried up while Atlanta built the lead. After Kyrie Irving’s pull-up at 9:46 of the second quarter cut the Hawks’ lead to 49-40, Atlanta scored 14 of the next 15 points, reaching 63-41 on Jalen Johnson’s basket at 5:01. That 14-1 burst consumed 4:45 of game time.
Aaron Wiggins hit a 3-pointer at 8:59, Dyson Daniels followed with a dunk at 7:01, and Dallas went 8-for-24 from the field and 1-for-10 from 3-point range in the quarter.
The sequence also showed why simply blaming Flagg’s misses would miss the point. He missed an 8-foot attempt at 11:17, before the decisive burst began, then missed a 16-footer at 5:17 and a 24-foot 3-pointer with 19.6 seconds left in the half. Atlanta’s defense deserves credit for making the floor uncomfortable, but Dallas needed other players to punish the attention or stabilize the offense.
The poor Dallas shooting in that quarter was broader than Flagg’s own misses.
The Hawks’ shooting widened the margin. Atlanta made 21 3-pointers to Dallas’ 13, an eight-make difference worth 24 points. Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 25 points and hit six 3-pointers.
Wiggins added 19 points with four makes from deep, while reserve center Jock Landale scored 16 and went 3-for-4 from outside. The visitors did not need one player to manufacture every good possession; their offense kept finding another credible threat.
