Cooper Flagg’s step-back three gave him 20 points before the second quarter was halfway over. A little later, he set up Zaccharie Risacher for a dunk. The easy temptation for a player scoring that fast is to see how long it can last. Flagg spent a good part of Sunday seeing how much of it he could share.
The Mavericks beat Brooklyn 130-93 Sunday at American Airlines Center. Flagg finished with 25 points, five rebounds and 12 assists. A start that might have invited him to keep shooting instead gave him plenty of room to do both jobs. He had 20 points by halftime, and the passes to Gafford came in the middle of that scoring rather than after it.
The opening quarter established why the Nets could not simply wait for Flagg to cool down. He made five of six shots in the period. At 11:02, he hit a 9-foot floating jump shot after a Kyrie Irving assist.
At 9:22, he answered with an 8-foot driving floater, this time after Gafford found him. He added two free throws at 8:47, a 5-foot basket at 7:44 and a turnaround jumper with 2:09 remaining. With 0.9 seconds left, he made a 25-foot 3-pointer.
That was a substantial scoring burst before the passing display fully arrived. Flagg was not merely filling the first quarter with difficult attempts; he was converting enough of them to force Brooklyn to account for him on every possession. Dallas led 33-26 after the period, and Flagg had already made himself the problem the Nets needed to solve.
Daniel Gafford had already scored twice on Flagg assists in the quarter. One was a short layup, the other a bank shot from close range. Flagg’s own three came after both. Dallas could run a possession through him and still have a center make the finish, then go back to Flagg for the next basket.
The passing continued. Risacher made a running dunk off one Flagg assist and a layup off another. Naji Marshall made a long jumper on a Flagg feed in between. It takes different receivers to make a passing night like this one work: a center close to the basket, a runner who can finish on the move, a shooter who can take a longer look.
Gafford deserves credit beyond being the beneficiary of two neat entries. He scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting in 19 minutes, grabbed five rebounds and added two assists. His finishing gave Flagg a dependable answer near the basket, and Dallas repeatedly found value inside.
The Mavericks made 34 two-point baskets on 49 attempts and scored 64 points in the paint. Brooklyn made 20 two-point baskets on 41 attempts.
That difference also belongs to the finishers. Risacher turned two Flagg passes into a dunk and a layup, Marshall converted his long jumper, and Gafford handled the interior chances cleanly. Flagg’s line was extraordinary, but 12 assists do not happen in isolation. Dallas players caught the ball in positions where a decisive finish was available, then converted often enough to keep the offense moving.
