Cooper Flagg joined the Slovenian as the only other teenager in the NBA to record at least 33 points, nine assists and nine rebounds in a single game during his team’s nail-biting win over the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday.
The Nuggets missed the chance to get closer to Oklahoma City after losing a thrilling duel 131-130 against the Mavericks on the road in Texas.
The Mavericks’ talent Cooper Flagg once again took center stage: the 19-year-old, first overall pick in the draft, finished with 33 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, the best scorer of the game.
Flagg’s performance was supported by Anthony Davis’ 31 points, while Dallas got the better of the Nuggets duo Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, who together scored 60 points for Denver.
The Nuggets came close to winning at the buzzer, but Peyton Watson’s wide open three-point shot went wide after hitting the rim.
“We’re growing as a group, trying to support each other,” Flagg said. “Obviously Jamal and (Jokic) were on the night – so we tried to limit them and force someone else to beat us.”
Dallas rises to 12-19, while the Nuggets fall to 21-8 in the Western Conference.
Flagg found motivation in another hard-fought victory for the Mavs, who beat the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons last week.
“We are learning from all these experiences,” Flagg added. “We have already played many point-to-point matches, so we try to learn from each match to improve more and more.”
Ten days after eliminating the Thunder from the NBA Cup semifinals, the Spurs once again proved too strong for the Western Conference leaders, earning their seventh consecutive victory in San Antonio and beating OKC 130-110.
Starting guard Stephon Castle finished with 24 points, including four three-pointers, but the decisive contribution came from Johnson, who scored 25 points off the bench, with five triples.
The Thunder slip to 26-4 after the loss, while the Spurs rise to 22-7 and remain second in the West.
San Antonio player Victor Wembanyama finished with 12 points, while NBA MVP winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 33 points.
“It shows how determined we are – we have the same ambitions as them, we just want to get on the pitch and compete every time we play them,” said Castle, who scored 10 of his 24 points in the final quarter, in which the Spurs outscored the Thunder 43-28.
In Tuesday’s other games, Anthony Edwards scored 38 points and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New York Knicks 115-104 in Minneapolis.
Edwards made four 3-pointers, while teammate Julius Randle added 25 points, allowing the Wolves to surpass Karl-Anthony Towns’ 40-point performance.
Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who scored 47 points in Sunday’s win over Miami, missed the game with a right ankle injury.
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