Cooper Flagg struggled in his Dallas Mavericks debut — but so did Dirk and Luka
The rivalry between the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs captured NBA fans’ attentions in the 2000s with both team led by superstars, one an American phenom who starred in the ACC in college and the other a European wunderkind revolutionizing the game.
History seems to have repeated itself, but now with the Mavs having the American phenom in Duke product Cooper Flagg and the Spurs having their own “jeune prodige” in France’s Victor Wembanyama.
Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft, scored zero points in the first half of his regular-season debut Wednesday at American Airlines Center. He finally got on the scoreboard in the first minute of the second half and scored 10 points to go with 10 rebounds, but the Spurs wiped out the Mavericks 125-92.
As Flagg struggled, shooting 4-of-13 from the field, Wembanyama, a third-year pro, soared. He poured in 40 points, shooting 15-of-21, with 15 rebounds and three blocks, including some spectacular highlight-reel dunks.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd defended Flagg’s performance after the game.
“I thought Cooper played within himself. He took what the defense gave him. He was making plays. He’s diving on the floor,” Kidd said. “He’s one that's not gonna go out here, shoot every time he touches it. He tries to play the game the right way. I thought he did that in the first half.
“Came out there in the third and started to look to be aggressive to take some shots that he knocked down. I thought he played well. Now the stat line is not gonna say that, but no one in this room is sitting in his shoes, and so I think again, as a rookie, did fine.”
Flagg who almost began the game with a highlight lob dunk, got off to a slow start, missing his only two shots from the field while adding six rebounds and two turnovers in the first half.
After the game, Flagg evaluated his play and what he needed to do to improve.
“Not great. I mean obviously I didn’t play incredibly well, but I gotta move past it, turn our focus and start getting ready for Friday,” Flagg said. “Trying to take what was there, but I gotta be a little bit more aggressive off the rip.”
Wembanyama got off to a monster start, scoring 21 points with eight rebounds and a block in the first half with several high-degree-of-difficulty makes, including two tough 3-point plays, one a jumper and the other a reverse jam that drew gasps from the crowd, both of which came with Anthony Davis defending.
The France native didn’t slow down in the second half, notching his fifth 40-point game, dominating both sides of the court and deterring players from the paint.
“He’s incredible, a different player, like I said, can’t know what It's like until you get out there on the court with him. That’s something I’ve never seen before,” Flagg said. “He was great tonight, but we gotta do a better job of trying to just take away some of his looks and can’t foul him as much as we did.”
How did Flagg compare to Dirk Nowitzki and Luka Dončić’s rookie debuts?
Future Mavs superstars Dirk Nowitzki and Luka Dončić had similarly slow starts to their career, with the pair scoring only 12 points combined in their debuts.
Nowitzki’s debut was quiet, with the Germany native going 0-for-5 with two points and four assists in a 92-86 overtime loss to the Seattle SuperSonics on Feb. 5, 1999.
Dončić also struggled from the field, scoring 10 points on 5-of-16 shooting with eight rebounds and four assists in an 121-100 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 17, 2018.
Ryan Nembhard and Dylan Harper make NBA debuts
While much of the attention in American Airlines Center went to Flagg and Wembanyama, No. 2 overall pick Spurs guard Dylan Harper and Mavs guard Ryan Nembhard also made their debuts.
Harper had 15 points, four rebounds and two assists, while Nembhard led Dallas with five assists despite only playing 16 minutes and added eight points.
Kidd said he was happy with the undrafted rookie’s performance, saying he did well organizing when he was on the court and taking the shots the defense presented.
The Mavs will be back in action against the Washington Wizards at 7:30 p.m. Friday at American Airlines Center.
Jason Kidd talks about Mavericks-Spurs rivalry
Few NBA rivalries in the 2000s were more impactful than the Mavs and Spurs. From 2001 to 2014, the teams met in the postseason six times with each team beating the other en route to winning an NBA championship.
Kidd, who played in two of those playoff series, talked about the rivalry before the game.
“Two really good teams that are competing ... to win an NBA championship,” he said. “This rivalry has gone on for a long, long time, before I got here, [and] it has continued. When you talk about San Antonio, they’re the standard of champions, they’ve won championships, they understand what it takes, and we’re trying to get there.”
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 10:23 PM.
