At 6:05 of the fourth quarter, Caleb Martin found Cooper Flagg near the basket, and Flagg finished the dunk through a foul. He converted the free throw, pulling Dallas even with San Antonio at 100-100. The and-one was a fitting pivot in a 112-111 Mavericks loss: Flagg’s offense had revived, but the night was becoming valuable because he was helping other players find theirs.
The Dallas Mavericks had trailed by 19 and entered halftime down 68-51 at Frost Bank Center. They eventually took a 103-100 lead with 5:38 remaining, their first advantage since the opening quarter. The rally belonged to several players, especially Naji Marshall, yet Flagg’s fingerprints were on the stretch that made the comeback plausible.
His shooting line required patience before it deserved praise. Flagg had four points while making only one of his 11 first-half attempts. San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama already had 29 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks by the break, and the Spurs were controlling the interior.
Flagg was not merely missing; he was operating in a game where every trip toward the rim came with an eight-block problem waiting somewhere nearby.
After halftime, the shots finally arrived. Flagg scored 15 points by making six of eight attempts, with seven points in the third quarter and eight in the fourth. That correction mattered, especially when the Mavericks needed offense after Kyrie Irving’s 17-point first half gave way to two points in the fourth.
But reducing Flagg’s night to a split-screen shooting story would miss the part that changed Dallas’ attack.
His passing repeatedly put Marshall in position to punish San Antonio. Flagg assisted on a Marshall basket with 5:35 remaining in the third quarter. In the fourth, his pass set up Marshall’s 25-foot three at 9:46, cutting the Spurs’ lead to 94-87.
At 8:17, Flagg found him again for another three, bringing Dallas within 94-92. Marshall then scored on an 11-foot pullup at 7:03, though Walter Clayton Jr. supplied that assist.
Those connections gave Dallas a second creator instead of asking Flagg to repair the whole offense himself. Marshall finished with 22 points, going 9-for-12 from the field and 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. Flagg assisted all three of Marshall’s fourth-quarter threes. His passing kept reaching the player who was making San Antonio pay from outside.
Dallas had more support than its final score might suggest. The Mavericks’ reserves outscored San Antonio’s 38-10, while Dallas made 14 of 37 three-point attempts compared with five of 36 for the Spurs. The Mavericks also committed only eight turnovers. Those advantages explain how Dallas could survive a slow start and challenge a team that had led 90-80 after three quarters.
