NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates 
The Dallas Mavericks’ 2026-27 season got off to a rocky start on Wednesday night, as they got blown out by Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets, 128-110. After only trailing 32-26 when the first quarter ended, the Mavs proceeded to get outscored 38-12 in the second quarter, which ended up being the deciding factor in the game. Dallas outscored Houston 72-58 in the second half, but it was already too late.
It was a little bit of a mixed bag when it came to the performances of the Mavs’ two stars, 19-year-old Cooper Flagg and 34-year-old Kyrie Irving, who was playing his first real NBA game in nearly 600 days following an ACL injury. Flagg finished with a game-high 32 points (10-17 FG, 11-13 FT), five rebounds, two assists, three steals and one block in 33 minutes of action. He poured in 23 of his 32 points in the second half alone. Irving finished with 15 points (6-9 FG), four rebounds, two assists and one steal. Both Flagg and Irving had four turnovers each.
Advertisement
Following the loss, Mavs head coach Dusty May gave his thoughts on how his two stars played in their first real game together.
“I thought he was setting us up,” May said of Flagg’s second-half scoring. “In the first half I thought he was being very intentional with getting his teammates shots, and then, in the second half, we did a better job of getting some off-ball movement. We played a little bit faster, and then obviously if you’re not taking the ball out of the net, you can get it up and attack quickly. I thought that was the biggest difference. We just — our pace got a lot better in the second half.”
Getting to the free-throw line was something Dallas struggled with in the preseason, so Flagg’s ability to get to the stripe 13 times and convert 11 of them was a welcome sight for May.
“That’s been a point of emphasis, and that’s one thing, when we evaluated ourselves after four [preseason] games, getting to the line wasn’t something we did well,” May said. “We thought [Flagg] was the best way to capitalize in the paint. I thought he was strong. I thought he made good decisions. When we start knocking down some open shots, his assist numbers…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dallas-mavs-head-coach-dusty-163000789.html
Author :
Publish date : 2026-10-22 16:30:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
