Cooper Flagg Drops Season-High 43 as Mavericks Rally Past Pacers 125-122

Cooper Flagg is 19 years old, in only his second NBA season, and nights like Monday are starting to look routine. The Dallas Mavericks forward scored a season-high 43 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out six assists as Dallas fought back from 13 points down to beat the Indiana Pacers 125-122 at American Airlines Center.

Flagg shot 16 of 25 from the field, 3 of 6 from three-point range and a perfect 8 of 8 from the free-throw line in 39 minutes, adding three steals and a block. Sixteen of his points came in the fourth quarter, when the Mavericks finally took control of a game Indiana had led for long stretches.

Kyrie Irving was almost as good beside him. The veteran guard matched his own season high with 35 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including 7 of 10 from deep, and the two stars combined for 78 of Dallas’s 125 points. It was only the second time in franchise history that two Mavericks teammates have each scored at least 35 points in the same game.

Mavericks erase a double-digit deficit

Indiana looked in charge early. The Pacers led by 10 at half-time and stretched the advantage to 13 before Dallas began to claw its way back in the third quarter. The Mavericks outscored Indiana 34-27 in the third and 35-29 in the fourth, turning a game that had been slipping away into their third consecutive win.

Flagg did the heavy lifting when it mattered most. His 16 fourth-quarter points steadied Dallas every time Indiana threatened to pull away again, and his free-throw shooting — eight makes without a miss — closed the door in the final minute.

P.J. Washington gave the Mavericks useful support with 13 points and nine rebounds, but the night belonged to the two stars. Dallas improved to 7-4 on the season and sits ninth in the Western Conference, with the win streak now at three.

Siakam leads the Pacers in defeat

Pascal Siakam carried Indiana with 29 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in 35 minutes, while Andrew Nembhard added a 12-point, 12-assist double-double. It was not enough. The Pacers fell to 3-8 and have now lost both meetings with the Mavericks this season after a 121-105 defeat in Indianapolis on 23 October.

Indiana’s problem was not effort but firepower. Beyond Siakam and Nembhard, no Pacer reached 20 points, and Dallas’s two stars outscored Indiana’s entire bench by themselves.

A star still rising

Flagg’s performance continued a remarkable start to his second season. The teenager, who was named Rookie of the Year last season, has now scored at least 20 points in seven of his first 10 games and is averaging 25.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game, according to NBC Sports.

The numbers put him in rare company for a player his age. Only a handful of teenagers in league history have produced 40-point games, and Flagg is already collecting them at a pace that invites comparison with the greats — LeBron James scored 41 points as a 19-year-old rookie in March 2004, and Flagg passed that age mark with his 42-point game against Utah last December.

What stood out on Monday was not just the scoring but the completeness of the performance: the rebounds, the assists, the steals, the perfect night at the line and the calm in the fourth quarter of a close game.

What comes next

Dallas takes its three-game winning streak on the road, visiting the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday, 12 November. Indiana returns home to host the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, 11 November, looking to steady a season that has started with eight defeats in 11 games.

For the Mavericks, the bigger question is how far this version of the team can go. With Flagg playing like this and Irving healthy and scoring beside him, the ceiling keeps rising — and Monday night was the clearest evidence yet.