Cooper Flagg was double teamed on his first touch and missed his first two shots in his NBA Summer League debut with the Dallas Mavericks.
But the 18-year-old Flagg, sporting some facial hair and a No. 32 jersey, sparked a solid start by navigating through several defenders in transition before throwing down a one-handed dunk for his first points as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Flagg, the sixth Duke basketball player to be selected as the top pick in the draft, scored all 10 of his points in the first half of the Mavericks’ 87-85 win against the Los Angeles Lakers at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
“Not up to my standard, but I’m gonna regroup, I’m gonna be alright,” Flagg said after the game on the ESPN broadcast. “New feeling, new environment, new teammates. … I didn’t have my best game, but I’m gonna just keep going forward.”
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Overall, it was a rough shooting performance for Flagg, who was 5-for-21 and missed each of his five attempts from 3-point range. But the Blue Devils’ latest one-and-done star scored everywhere else and — like he did so many times at Duke — showed his versatility by influencing the game as a rebounder, passer and defender.
Flagg had six rebounds, four assists, three steals and one turnover in nearly 32 minutes. He scored 10 points in 16 first-half minutes, including two jumpers and three buckets in the paint. The shooting struggles carried into the second half as Flagg missed each of his six shots from the floor, but he helped the Mavs hold on for a win in Vegas.
With 1:09 left, Flagg blocked former Duke player DJ Steward’s layup attempt before firing a pass to Ryan Nembhard, who knocked down the go-ahead 3-pointer with just over a minute left. That ended up being the deciding sequence in the game.
Flagg and the Mavericks will be back in action against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, July 12 (4 p.m., ESPN/ESPN+).
Rodd Baxley covers Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding those teams? Send them to [email protected].
