ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg was back in the starting lineup for Dallas against the Orlando Magic on Thursday night after missing eight games with a foot injury. He had a mixed return to action.
The No. 1 pick in last year’s NBA draft was sidelined with a left mid-foot sprain and had last played at Phoenix on Feb. 10. But, the Mavericks didn’t hesitate to go directly to their rookie star in crunch time.
Dallas put the ball in Flagg’s hands at the end of a game and the 19-year-old came through with a big three-point play with 37.3 seconds left that gave the Mavericks a four-point lead.
But, it wasn’t quite enough this time.
Flagg missed a mid-range jump shot in the final seconds and the Mavericks lost 115-114 to Orlando. It was their 15th loss in 17 games.
But, nobody was disappointed.
“Obviously we’ve been in a lot of those situations throughout the season, (and we) haven’t won a ton of them, but it’s about learning experiences for us right now,” Flagg said. “We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to get better. We’re going to be in a ton of these situations moving forward into next year. I’m pretty comfortable at this point.”
Flagg scored 18 points on 7-for-22 shooting in 26 minutes and finished with five rebounds, six assists and four blocks, including three in the fourth quarter after he had taken a couple of hard fouls.
“He had some incredible blocks there,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “I think he got a little upset when he got hit after the whistle. But I thought his energy picked up on the defensive end and he got us going.”
The 6-foot-9 Flagg was on a record-setting roll when he got injured, having put up consecutive games of 49, 34, 36 and 32 points. He is the youngest NBA player to score 45 points, and he joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kelly Tripucka as the only rookies to post 49-point games with 65% shooting.
“Coop is going to be a superstar in this league,” said Klay Thompson, who scored 24 points for the Mavericks. “It’s been a pleasure to be his teammate and I’ll be excited to tell future generations that I got to play with him in his rookie season.”
The final 20 games of Flagg’s rookie season, starting Friday night in Boston, will be chalked up to a learning experience. He has missed a total of 12 of the Mavericks’ 62 games.
“Obviously the hardest part is not playing. I love to compete, I love to play basketball so having that taken away from me for a while is tough,” he said. “But it’s a good way for me to learn and get perspective, watch from a different angle. I think I learned a lot in the last couple of weeks, but I was definitely ready to get back out there and compete.”
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