Cooper Flagg is feeling the Christmas spirit — and that could be trouble for the Warriors on Thursday.
It was trouble for the Nuggets on Tuesday. On a night Nikola Jokic had 29 points and 14 assists, and Jamal Murray showed why he should be a first-time All-Star scoring 31 and also dishing out 14 assists, Flagg was the best player on the court.
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Flagg finished with 33 points, nine rebounds and nine assists and hit a career-best four three-pointers leading the Mavericks to a 131-130 win over the Nuggets.
Was Flagg just feeling the Christmas spirit?
“Nah, I mean, Christmas time. There’s magic in the air,” Flagg said on NBC after the game. “It’s the holidays. I’m just glad to come out here and have a good performance.”
He will get a taste of true Christmas spirit when he and the Mavericks head to the Bay Area to take on Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day.
The one scary part of the night came when Denver forward Cameron Johnson left the game with 9:18 in the fourth quarter after landing awkwardly going for a rebound — he fell straight to the ground, grabbing his knee. He limped off the court under his own power, straight to the locker room, with what the team later called a knee sprain. Considering how it looked when it happened, let’s hope future tests show it is just a sprain. Denver is already down two starters — Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun — due to injury.
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While Flagg was hot all game, it wasn’t just him early on. Dallas raced out to a 20-6 lead because they were getting to the rim at will — 11 of their first 15 shot attempts were in the restricted area, and they made eight of them.
Dallas maintained that double-digit lead through the first half thanks to Flagg, who scored 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting before the half.
Denver did what it does to everyone, though, walking Dallas down with a 47-point third quarter where it shot 9-of-11 from 3. The comeback was fueled by lock Jokic and Murray. It was a tie game entering the fourth.
Dallas, however, stepped up in the fourth behind 10 points in the quarter from Anthony Davis, who finished with 31points and nine boards.
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Denver had a chance to win it at the buzzer, when the Mavericks’ defense swarmed Murray and then Jokic in the final seconds. Jokic made a beautiful pass to a wide-open Peyton Watson in the corner, but his game-winning attempt rimmed out.
That left Flagg and the Mavericks celebrating at center court.
