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Tim MacMahon
DALLAS — On the first offensive possession of his NBA career, Cooper Flagg pushed the ball down the floor in transition, gave it up to Anthony Davis and soared into the air to catch the lob pass the 10-time All-Star tossed back to him, much to the delight of the sellout crowd at the American Airlines Center.
But Flagg couldn’t complete the highlight by throwing down the dunk. As the ball rattled out of the rim, he crashed onto the baseline, landing on his backside.
It was a sequence that foreshadowed the No. 1 pick’s NBA debut — a lot of anticipation, but a disappointing result for Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks.
Flagg went scoreless in the first half and finished with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting as the San Antonio Spurs rolled to a 125-92 rout Wednesday night. The 6-foot-9 Flagg started at point guard, a position he had never played until joining the Mavs, and committed three turnovers without recording an assist.
“Not great,” Flagg said when asked to assess his performance. “Obviously, didn’t play incredibly well, but we’ve got to move past it, turn our focus and start looking toward Friday [against the Washington Wizards].”
The game was dominated by Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, who had 40 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks. Spurs guard Stephon Castle, the Rookie of the Year last season, added 22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals while pestering Flagg as his primary defender.
“He didn’t shoot the ball well, but he seemed a lot more poised than I thought he would be,” Castle said of Flagg. “I mean, my first game I was out there nervous. He made some good reads. He didn’t seem too rattled, so I think he’ll have a great year.”
San Antonio guard Dylan Harper, the No. 2 pick behind Flagg, had the more impressive debut. He scored 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting in 23 minutes off the bench.
Flagg, on the other hand, didn’t score until making a midrange jumper on the opening possession of the second half.
“Game one. I mean, he’s still a rookie,” said Davis, who had a team-high 22 points on 7-of-22 shooting as the Mavs’ offense sputtered. “You’re coming in and preseason was obviously good, but when that game one comes around [in a] packed stadium, national TV game … I’m not sure if he’s a social media guy or not, but you saw it — everything was No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and Wemby match up and all this stuff. So you start hearing it, and I’m not sure if it got to him, but it’s first-game jitters when it’s time for the real thing. So he’ll be fine.”
Flagg did manage to become the fifth Dallas player to record a double-double in his NBA debut, grabbing 10 rebounds in his 32 minutes. That list includes his coach, Jason Kidd, who didn’t consider the 18-year-old’s debut to be discouraging.
“I thought he played well. Now, the stat line is not going to say that, but no one in this room is sitting in his shoes. As a rookie, he did fine and he’s going to learn from this game. We all will, and we’ll be better next time we take the floor,” Kidd said.
According to ESPN Research, the Mavs scored only eight points on the 19 possessions that Flagg brought the ball up the floor. He is listed as the point guard in a supersized lineup in which 6-foot-6 Klay Thompson is the shortest player, but the Mavs intend to have forwards P.J. Washington and Davis share the playmaking responsibilities with the rookie in a system designed around player and ball movement.
“We just got a little stagnant,” Flagg said. “It’s early, so we got to keep working on that, figure it out, get our flow a little bit better.”
Flagg attempted only two shots from the floor in the first half. He came out of halftime determined to be more aggressive, going 4-of-11 from the floor in the third quarter, when the Spurs outscored the Mavs by a 33-21 margin.
“I thought Cooper played within himself,” Kidd said. “He took what the defense gave him. He’s making plays. He’s diving on the floor. He’s one that’s not going to go out here and just shoot every time he touches it. He tries to play the game the right way, and I thought he did that in the first half. I thought he was comfortable and came out there in the third, started looking to be aggressive to take some shots that he knocked down.”
The Mavs were outscored by 29 points with Flagg on the floor, the worst plus-minus in the game.
“I’m excited to keep going,” Flagg said. “Obviously it hurts, the first loss being like that, but I’m just trying to look forward to the next one, turn the page and get ready. We know we got to be a lot better than that, so just staying positive and staying ready and just being locked in on the next one.”
