Cooper Flagg’s throwdown at the end of the third quarter didn’t just rattle the rim; it set off a roar that echoed through the arena and pushed the rookie to a new career high.
Joey Mistretta posted the slam on X, writing that the dunk and the free throw that followed gave Cooper Flagg a new NBA career-high with 19 points. Flagg, the Dallas Mavericks’ No. 1 overall pick, delivered the kind of burst every franchise dreams of from a freshman-turned-rookie: physical at the rim, poised with the ball, and suddenly the most electric man on the court.
Fans rose, cameras zoomed in, and social feeds filled with the kind of highlight reaction that fuels a young player’s brand. “Taking a one-pound dribble past half court to punch onna 7 footer is insane!!! Good lord,” one fan wrote. Another echoed the sentiment: “He dunks like Russell Westbrook if he had another ten inches of height, holy f**k.”
The box score tells a slightly different story. ESPN’s official gamebook shows Flagg finishing with 22 points, four rebounds, and four assists in 29 minutes. He spearheaded a fourth-quarter surge that nearly erased a large deficit. That stat line underscores both his scoring punch and playmaking upside as a primary creator.
Dallas’ record still sits in the early-season trenches, but a sequence like that—a rookie with size, touch, and timing—gives the Mavericks something to build on. If Flagg keeps making plays that get crowds to their feet, debates about his ceiling will shift toward inevitability.
For now, the highlights keep coming, and so do the questions: can the rookie turn crowd-pleasing moments into consistent winning production?
https://clutchpoints.com/nba/dallas-mavericks/mavericks-news-fans-erupt-cooper-flagg-new-career-high-dunk
