How Cooper Flagg DOMINATED in the Clutch to Pull the Dallas Mavericks to Another win

How Cooper Flagg DOMINATED in the Clutch to Pull the Dallas Mavericks to Another win

on today’s show. Cooper Flag’s best game of the season so far. I think so. He’s growing into the superstar we thought. Today’s locked on abs. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on M. I think that’s a good question. You are Locked on M. Your daily Mavericks podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network. Still can’t your team every day. want to get a city like back and welcome you locked on to the Dallas Mavericks your team every day. My name is Nick Exstead 10 years singing every day or making lock on apps your first listen each and every day and every post game. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. Go check out the FanDuel app. Put down $5 if you’re a new customer. You get $300 in bonus bets if you win fuel.com. Today joining me as always the postgame prod YouTube channel. What did you see from the Dallas Mavericks tonight bias? Really fun game, fun win. Um, Cooper Flag domination, best game of his career. So, yeah, a lot to be happy about. This is the future. We’ll talk about Max Christie. We’ll talk about some PJ Washington. We’ll talk about Naji Marshall versus Jeremiah Fears. Little little back and forth, little little chippiness, little little edge to the Mavericks. But I want to start here. Obviously, Scooter Flag 29 points careerhigh for him. Seven boards, five assists, two steals. Missed all four of his threes, took them all in the first half. and but at finished the game 12 of four of 19 from the field, five of 16 from the free throw line and he put together a complete game to me. Like you just look at what he did in this one, especially in that fourth quarter when he had 12 points. He had three assists in that fourth quarter, too. He figured out how he can get his offense. And this is the thing we’ve been seeing from Cougar Flag is that he is going to feel it out and he’s going to figure out where his place is in each game and with this team and in this offense and with each player and overall and he’ll eventually figure it out. And that’s the thing about Cooper Flag that I think Mavs fans could be really excited about can look and say that’s the future star that can lead this team because if he’s going to figure it out each and every way through this this like each step, then the sky’s is the limit for a guy like this cuz he was scoring at the rim against mismatches. He was hitting jumpers. He was hitting little hook shots and runners. The the most impressive play honestly that I saw from him in this whole game was the very end of the game. PJ Washington blocks the Fierce three with 20 seconds left and the Mavs are up one. Cooper flag gets the ball in the back court and he’s stuck behind Herb Jones and Zion Williamson who are walking up to him like approaching him to double team him in the back court. Nobody else is in the back court. Everybody else is already down the lane. like nobody decided to come and help Cooper Flag dribble out this and you only have 8 seconds to get the ball from where he had it to past the half court line and he’s stuck. And I’ve seen so many young players and even vet players take the ball in that position and hold it or throw it crazily to somebody else. And Cooper Flag looked at Herb Jones, an all def, you know, all defensive guy and Zion Williamson, just a massive human, less massive now, but still massive. And he split the defenders and he like dribbled right between the two of them. I thought it was so impressive and just to see the things that Flag did in this game, it just got me really hyped to see what he can be going forward because I think he’s learning on the fly and it’s it’s incredible to watch. This is so Ryan Marcelo coded of you. It’s unbelievable. To pull out one little thing that wasn’t a bucket that my favorite play was the play he didn’t make. No. Yeah. No, I I agree. I actually he the moment that play happened, I I I thought the same thing. I was like that was that was an impressive. I mean that that goes back to like summer league girls where like he’s pretty good at handling the small pressure in fullcourt press for a for a guy his age and not like with his with his uh handle supposed to be one of the weakest parts of his game. But yeah, he’s just he looks more more comfortable. We kind of joked, but it wasn’t really a joke uh in their loss a couple nights ago. Who did they lose to a couple nights ago? Oh, the Knicks when we were when when Koopa wasn’t playing and we were like, well, I mean Coup’s lowkey their best clutch guy. Like he has he’s their leading clutch scorer. He takes the most shots in the clutch and he’s been uh by a point uh pointwise and efficiency wise one of the better clutch players in the entire NBA so far this season. So uh tonight no different down the stretch of the game taking the game over. I mean he had 21 six and three in the second half of the game, right? And then you mentioned his fourth first half was pretty quiet. Yeah. 124 and three in the in the fourth quarter. And yeah, it’s just he his touch on the rim is so is so impressive. I mean, uh, his post up numbers in general, and this was before tonight. This was going into tonight’s game. I mean, he’s in the 87th percentile among postup scorers. So, he he’s been one of the most efficient post players in the league so far this season. Uh, I mean, he’s he’s been more efficient on postups than like Demard Rosen, Chris, Porzingis, Shay, like that’s not really a part of his game. BI, like he’s been good on uh on these postups. And even when you’re going up against a guy like Queen, who’s not a good defensive player, I mean, we’ll talk we should talk about Queen in a bit cuz he’s he is very good. He is very very good. But defensively right now, he’s not very good. He’s very he is when we we we gave like Shangon the baby Yic moniker. Derek Queen is baby Yic through and through down to like the hey dude, you got to try on defense a little bit. And we have a baby version. We We have Jokic. We have Sabonis. We have Shenun. Oh no, I’m sorry. Sabonus is out of this. Sabonotus is in. Took Sabonus out. Okay, then we have Shingun. Now we have Derek Queen as the Wow. Sabonis has been kicked out of the evolutionary stages. He was always just in there because it was like a center who racked up assist and just had it all handled, right? Like if you watched it was like this guy’s not anywhere near the passer Joic is or even ShenGun. And Shang’s kind of blossom into his own guy too. Like he’s got like an athleticism leg up on Joic that makes their games different. He was doing the splits the other day warming up and you’re just like that’s just a different like kind of athlete than what Joic is. He’s a good defender too because it’s like he’s a little bit more nimble than you think. Air Queen to me is like this is this feels like a Jokic prodigy to the core. Like all of the the in the deep bag that he gets into where you know maybe he doesn’t have the touch or like the crazy the sombo shuffle that Joic has but he has this the thing he does is that real I mean he uses his full wingspan on that low dribble pickup and it is for a guy that big swings it through. Yeah, that thing is difficult to not foul on, but it was a really fun game watching those two and fears duke it out. Like this was a really fun basketball game honestly, which I don’t know if you would expect at this point in the year from these two teams from two teams that are in the bottom like the bottom of the west. Have won six games between the two of them and are like a combined what like the 30th and the 26th offenses in in the NBA. This is actually like like you said it was it was a pretty good game overall. The Mavs were hitting threes. the Pelicans were not hitting their threes as much, but they were getting to the to the line a bunch, which uh it’s weird when like the Knicks game felt like they were getting to the line a ton and it was 65 and like oh this game is so slow and all this and this this game they got to the line like 59 times and it didn’t feel didn’t feel as much. Well, I I the way I watched this game cuz I wasn’t I wasn’t back home until the like after the third course started. This is the best way to consume basketball. I’ve talked about it on here. Yeah, you just start the game from the beginning and fast forward through all the stoppages and then I caught up. I caught up I I there was 10 minutes left in the third quarter when I started watching the beginning of the game. I caught up with four minutes left in the fourth. Completely caught up the entire game. Isn’t that crazy? That’s elite ball knowledge and skill right there of of the remote like Yeah, it’s boom. It’s the the O key on uh your laptop. It’s a what the one minute fast forward on NBA League Pass. So, boom boom boom. get us through free throws. That it’s funny because it’s like I didn’t know. I didn’t I didn’t experience that. Incredible. But yeah, it was Flag’s most It was Flag’s best game. And just his ability and his decisiveness, like you said, to find his mismatches. He’s good in the post because he only takes shots in the post that are mismatches and that are are shots that he should be taking. He’s not like going down there and throwing up garbage. He’s not going down there and trying something and getting blocked all the time. Like, and he’s also he’s big and his touch around the rim is really good. The thing that we we heard a lot about Flag coming into this first season was his handle is going to be suspect and his touch around the rim needs work and so far those have been like some of the strongest points of his game and it’s been some of the other things that I think he’s we he’s needed to work on. But uh those things have been good. Obviously he’s worked on them. Yeah. I mean that that’s part of the profile of this guy out of the draft was that he shores up his weaknesses so far throughout his playing career has shored up his weaknesses very quickly and yeah his his handle and all of that has been has been you know I think well above advertised it has been you know three-point shooting has kind of abandoned him a tiny bit it feels like uh especially because some of his misses are kind of bad you know like some of them are are missing pretty bad but I I have no doubt that he’ll figure that out. I’m not too I’m not overly concerned about his shot at all. And yeah, I mean, he’s just anybody who’s really been paying attention, I know the stats still might not jump out and grab you the way some of these other rookies right now are, but anyone who’s been paying attention, you could see, you know, dating back to like the sixth game of the season, Cooper Flag has just looked like a much more comfortable player. And then when you I mean, when people hate when you say it, but when you factor in the fact that he’s 18, it’s just like, man, he he’s only 18. Yeah. Do you know that? Is this gonna be the new uh T? He’s 18. He’s 18. He’s 18 until when this a month. They kept paying another He’s 18 for another month. He’s 18 for another month. Rack up those rack up those records. But it’s it’s true though. And we and you go back to like I mean I think was it 29? I think only only LeBron at as an 18-year-old has ever scored 29 points as an 18-year-old. Uh cuz 26 LeBron was the only one that had scored 26 and that was the last time Cooper scored it. So, like we’re just seeing stuff that we’ve never seen before except for LeBron James, who is by all accounts the first or second best NBA player ever. Okay. So, like that’s the that’s the baseline where we’re starting with this, which is wild. Not saying Flag will get to be the second best player ever, but that’s the player that he’s closest comparable to in his rookie year. I mean, that that’s a good baseline starting point, especially from a guy that we’ve been raving about. Learns, gets better, and adds to his game and all that. Wants to be great and all that. It’s coming up. PJ Washington massive in this game. Max Christie massive in this game. Two guys the Mavs really need going forward and will have going forward in the near future. What did they add to the game? We’ll talk about that more. Today’s episode of Lock Apps brought to you by Quo. This episode brought to you by Quo. Let’s talk about something every business owner knows all too well. It’s missed calls. 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You get 50% off on Door Dash with Dash Pass if somebody drops 50 points in a game and you get your shot at the bag drop. Dash Pass members only 50% off up to $10 after the 51 game with a promo code. Terms apply. No purchase necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to US residents 21 and older. Visit door dashinyoubag.com for full details. Door Dash in your bag all season long. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out with this unlocks, being part of the show, part of the raccoon squad, listening every day. We appreciate each and every one of you for checking out the show and listening. And I appreciate everybody that I met today. If you’re at a maps game, come to 123. Hopefully the ushers won’t get mad at you. It’s becoming a problem here. Yeah, they they’ve been getting strict. They’ve been yelling at us. So, uh, but I’ll see you there. Don’t be don’t be shy. Call me over and I’ll come I’ll come and say hi and we can hang out and all that. Uh, I also met an optometric opto an op an opthalmologist. What what is the what is the eye doctor one? Uh, oh I I uh what’s it called? Imoglo. Between the two of us, we can’t even pronounce the name of ologist. But uh I got some good insight into what Anthony Davis probably went through. They literally have to like inject either gas or oil into your eye to like like reattach the the retina in a way and you’re like you have to be like stationary for two weeks and then four to six weeks after you can’t work out. And so I’ve been very suspicious about the Anthony Davis couldn’t work out because of his eye surgery thing, but uh it was confirmed to me that he absolutely could not. So, I’m I wanted to clarify that that that is a wild thing to have gas plug like like stuffed into your eye. Insane. He said if they do the He said if they do the oil into the eye like later down the road they have to come back and take the oil out of it. So, he probably didn’t do that because they only did one procedure. Like that’s a wild thing to happen to your eye. That That’s just insane. The uh just medicine, man. Like like who thought Yeah. Who thought of that? idea of I know, but I’m just wondering like who’s who is the one who’s like, “All right, sit down, man. Like, I’m just going to shoot some gas in your eye and we’re just going to see what happens, dude. I can’t see out of this eye.” After this gas, you will you’ll be you’ll be able, dude. Think think about it that way. He also he also told me that if it was an actually like fully detached retina, if they got it reattached, he wouldn’t see as well. And I said, “Well, he’s not really shooting that well this season.” So, wasn’t that wasn’t that kind of the like uh Well, except the thing was it’s like it’s not a full detached retina or else he’d have like serious That’s what that’s what I kept saying, but I I mean he the So, the doctor that I talked to today, he was like, well, you just wouldn’t see as well after even after it got reattached. I was like, well, they did make him wear goggles. Let’s make sure that news doesn’t get out. Yeah. Keep that from the keep that from the Pistons and the and the Bulls and keep it from the Warriors and whoever else is in on is in on this. We’re talking about the Mavs win against the New Orleans Pelicans and they win. It’s a clutch game and the Mavs finally win a clutch game. The difference in this one honestly was just Cooper Flag. We’ve been waiting for the Mavs to have a closer. They haven’t had Kyrie and we’ve been like down the stretch of some of these games they just didn’t have anybody to go. They just don’t have people to go to. It was D’Angelo Russell the game against the Knicks. Cooper Flag was out. But Cooper Flag came up big in this one. I just want to keep I just want to go back to that cuz you mentioned it how clutch it was and in this in those specific moments, but he was massive late in this game and that is just such a rare thing for even a rookie to be able to do, let alone an 18-year-old rookie. I know we were joking about that earlier, but it still is like very impressive for an 18-year-old to close a game like he did. Uh with 2 minutes and 12 seconds left, the drive right at Queen to get the and one massive 241. He got the the rebound, pushed it, and threw the outlet pass to Max Christie. A perfect pass. Uh, and then minute 19 left, he got stuck on the left block. He was doubled and then all of a sudden the double team leaves and he stuck, I think, with just fears on him. Resets, hook shot. I think he traveled on it, but he just like he like pivoted, pivoted, pivoted, pivoted out of that double team. Got the hook shot and that ended up being uh the Mavs. That was 113 to 115 right there. And then he does the pick and pop with Naji. Naji hits that wild three with 30 seconds left. I did not think that three was going in. Did you? No. They they show I mean on the broadcast it it looked good, but then they showed like after the game the the baseline angle from the other basket and it it it did not look out the hands like it was online. That’s how that’s where I’m looking at it from. I’m looking at it like like dead on but then to like a skewed to the side a little bit and I was looking at it from behind. It did not look like it was going to be good to me, but it went in and we’ll give him credit. Niag came up big in some big moments. Man, Cooper is just I’m just impressed. Yeah. Yeah, I mean the most impressive stuff about his scoring is it feels like none of it’s easy at all. Like I don’t know true, you know, every bucket is a tough bucket. That’s a credit to how bad the Mavs offense has been this year. Um but he’s just he is starting to look more and more comfortable. And you know, I I really do think I’ve been say saying it all season long is it’s like I see Kyrie plugging into this lineup and helping him out tremendously. Tremendously. The vision from Jason Kid, not the vision that we all hated. The vision from Jason Kidd with the non-point guard lineup was that eventually you get all these guys comfortable enough to the point where they’re all handling and then when you eject Kyrie back in, he just scores on those plays when the Mavs like don’t have anything going at all. The problem was none of those guys were comfortable enough and the offense wasn’t set enough or or good enough for them to run that thing. Like I I get what he was trying to do to build to get all those guys comfortable enough to to handle the ball because it is such a luxury and such a weapon to be able to flag get a rebound, push the ball, PJ get a rebound, push the push in transition and and all that. It just did not like happen the way that they thought to start the season at all. You know, to bail out kid a little bit and do what was his deal tonight? I I I wasn’t on Twitter at all today. So ill. So okay, so you missed one Twitter sub I’ll tell you about it. illness illness. He was out, which is my my joke because they just always say illness. They don’t say what it is, right? Okay. Maybe something go wrong. Well, okay. So, the other Twitter subplot was, we’ll talk about this a little later, but uh Lively was listed as out with the with the knee sprain today. And we were like, “Oh.” And then Jason Kid goes up to the to the the podium and says, “Lively will be playing 15 to 18 minutes in his minutes restriction.” And Kevin Gray asked him, “Hey, wasn’t he wasn’t he listed as out?” Oh, and Jason kid like froze and looked right at him. Looked right at him and he goes, “No, he’s playing tonight.” And then the maps had to had to delete it and and re-up the uh the thing that said that Lively was going to play. It’s probably just the intern like I’m just going to get I haven’t gotten the report yet, but I’m just going to guess Lively’s out. I I think I don’t think I can guess with that. Is it is it an official PR post? It was It was probably a typo or something or Oh, I’m not saying I’m not saying anything nefarious happened. And I just thought it was funny that Jason Kid was like, “Uh, no, he’s playing.” That is pretty hilarious. And then he didn’t play in the first quarter and we were like, “Uh, is he playing? Is he playing?” I’m I’m just going to guess that’s with his minute restriction. They’re like, “We want him out there in the fourth.” I think so. Coming up, I think Jason Kid made a smart play with the Lively and Gaffford thing. I’m not even being facitious. I know it sounds like him when I when I give credit, but I really do think it was a smart choice. I’ll tell you what it was. Today’s episode of Lifetime Mavs brought to you by Prize Pix. It’s daily fantasy made easy. All you have to do is go to Prize Pix and pick a lineup that you can use from all different kinds of sports, all different kinds of people. You can go and see what is available for you because it changes all the time. I can tell you right now, but it’s going to be different by the time you get it. And all you have to do is combine a lineup and then once you do, you can uh pick more or less. I think 17 and a half was Cooper Flags, you know, more or less number. So, you pick more on Cooper Flag, you would have won that one. You combine it with a bunch of other ones and you can win a bunch of money with prize. You can even play it in Texas, which is important. Download the prize app today. Use the code locked on NBA. You get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on NBA. All one word. You get $50 in lineups to use on any kind of lineups you want after that. After you play your first $5, you don’t even have to win the lineup. You just play the $5 lineup. That’s cool. Prize mix. It’s good to be right. Shut it down. Let’s go home. All right. All right, slightly talking about the Maps win against the Pelicans and just how impressed I am with Cooper Flag and how well he played in that fourth quarter. Just an absolutely massive game from him and massive step forward. I thought Jason Gib made a smart play. They started with Daniel Gaffford instead of Derrick Lively even though Lively was going to play. Lively started the last game even though he’s going to be on a minute restriction. So, it wasn’t just because of the minutes restriction. So, he starts Gaffford and then you start to see what the Pelicans are doing. The Pelicans start Derek Queen and Zion Williamson as the front court. And that front court has actually been really good for them. That’s like one of the few things that has worked for the Pelicans is that duo of Zion and Derek Queen. And see, he sees the first half of that and then he decides in the second half, I’m going to start lively. Actually, I’ll start lively on Derek Queen and then I’ll start then I’ll bring Daniel Gaffford in to play against the Ees Misi lineups. And I thought that that was a really smart play because in that fourth in that third quarter, the Mavs actually played defense and they held him to what 22 points. Yeah. And I thought that was a I thought that was a big reason why is because Gaffford played much better against the mei lineups and I thought Lively was able to deter a little bit in those queen lineups. Yeah, I thought Lively was incredible tonight. like the these are the games for him that like I don’t want to say make me sad cuz that that seems a little uh out there but like just god if this guy could stay on the floor man like he really is such an impactful player cuz you know obviously we know the defensive stuff with him and how good he is defensively but just offensively he sets great screens and he rolls really hard to the rim and it just it opens up a lot of things for you and he is he is really a special passer for his size and skill set so uh yeah I thought he is great tonight. I I him and Coup’s minutes together were really good. That’s that was like the duo all year. That was like I’m really excited to see what Cooper Derek Lively lineups like look like ultimately at the end of the season. But uh I I’m actually is are they still I think they win just even though regardless of how bad this team is. Yeah, they win the Derek Clively minutes when he plays. Yeah. Like they just flat out outright win them. So, uh, yeah, I mean, he’s he’s an impactful player and yeah, I think that was a good decision by kid, especially if he’s 15 minutes and you’re just like, we want him out if like we we’re in more clutch games than anybody. Let’s be real. Like, we’re probably going to be in a clutch game. He said the minutes restriction was 18 minutes. He played 1751. There you go. Perfect. He had just enough for like a rebound at the end if if he needed to throw him out there. Yep. That’s right. Five fouls, too. He’s getting them in. That’s right. Yeah. I mean, the foul thing is still something we got to watch. It was drives from Zion. It was drives from Derek Queen. And you’re and a couple of them were were were tickytac fouls for sure. Illegal screen. Yeah, the illegal screen was that that was bad late too. Um that was a Brandon Williams. Brandon Williams thought had a rough game. But PJ 24 points, nine boards. He had three blocks including two late that were massive. The block on Derek Queen where he got in his face right afterwards is like PJ is just the soul of this team. Like he is he is the heart. He is the like the FU attitude that this Mavs team really really needs. And I thought he was he was really good. He had three turnovers in the first half. The Mavs were really struggling with turnovers in that first half, but he only had one in the second. And I’ll I’ll take that. Queen must be Queen must be a yapper on the court. He was talking every single time he scored or any single time he got a rebound or an assist or anything on at anybody. Like I was specifically watching him and like he went at Lively. He went at FL. He went at Flag really hard. Well, they’re very good friends. Queen. Yeah, they both played at the same high school, Mont Verde. Um, but Queen Queen scored on on flag with about four minutes left. Put put them up 105 103 and he just flexed on Flag right afterwards and I was like I’m I’m waiting for Flag to respond and he did get him with that and one late. Yeah. Yeah, that was fun to watch those two go back and forth and again they like Coupe talked about in the little postgame afterwards how how close they are and how fun it is playing each other. But yeah, uh I say that because PJ was got right back in his face after the block and then Lively blocked him later and was talking to him and Lively doesn’t talk that much really. He sounded like, “Man, Queen must be out there yapping it.” Queen was like, “Lively, what’s your favorite dinosaur?” And then Lively and then Lively responded, “Also in the pregame on the jumbo drawn, they always put like a player and then they put like something interesting about the player.” And it was Derek Lively and it put underneath it hobbies and it said Legos and dinosaurs. And I was like, six-year-old coded. I was like, I was like, sounds like my nephew. How are Wait, how are dinosaurs a hobby? Just, hey, Derek Queen goes out there, hey, dinosaurs aren’t real. Don’t think they’re real. I don’t believe that would get that any actually uh Playmobil is better than like Bionicles. Bionicles are Lego, but that’s okay. Are they really? Yeah, they’re they’re like Oh, okay. They’re like an offset. Okay. Okay. Okay. That Okay. That’s But that’s like saying Converse is technically like part of Nike. Yeah. Yeah. True. Yeah, it is. But no, PJ PJ was great. Is that where we started? That was where we got to this somehow. PJ was really good. He hit five He hit five threes, too, man. Him and him and Max Christie I I said that I laotted that the Mavs hit 16 threes, which is great. The only reason they did it was because BJ hit five and Max Christie hit five. Max Christie hit three within like a two-minute span quarter and Hardy hit three. Give give Hardy’s credit for those in the first half. Uh 23 points for Max Christie, too. I I would not trade him like unless it’s something really good. I’m just I’m I’m holding the stock. I’m holding my stock in Christie right now. No, he’s just a really I mean if the Mavs if if Christy were playing like this, the Mavs like actually good, he’d be the talk of the team. It would just be like, dude, Max Christie looks like a an elite role player. So, yeah, he’s playing great. One of our conversation points all off season about the Mavs was how long will it take Christie to prove that he should start over Clay? That was my that was my whole thing with him all offseason. took like a week and a half to that that being true. But to to your question is it’s like how long will it take for him to prove it? I mean that was like game one of the season. It was like yeah Christiey’s probably the best player. It was so quick and then he then kids started both of them at the same time and now Clay is coming off the bench and that has been I think the right decision. Second most points in a game too uh for Christie in his career. For his career that makes sense. Mhm. Mhm. So, shout out to Max. You you mentioned that Brandon Williams had a bit of a rough game. So, this is where and I never got around to finishing my point as as usually is the case. But this is uh just a little bit ago I was going to say no no I completely derailed I completely derailed myself, but I was saying I was going to give Kid a little bit of a pass was like with the guard situation it’s like these guys are very hot and cold. So, it is like Exxom was going other than Kyrie of course. XM is gonna be the like, yeah, the ceiling’s not as high with Exom, but like I at least know what I’m getting pretty much every single night out from him out for the year. Shout out to Dante Exom. But like Brandon Williams for what has gone on with his three-point shot, man. I mean, he did not look good. One of seven in this one and one of 12 overall. I mean, he hit the one three and that was the only field goal he had. So I will give him props though is it felt like in the first quarter he was kind of forcing it or first half he was kind of forcing the issue a little bit but to his credit in the second half it felt more you know he did go one of seven from the field but seven assists in that second half it felt like more of a concerted effort from him to all right my shots not there like let me make sure I’m setting some of these guys up and putting these guys in the right spot so you got to give be well some props there but yeah the shooting for him is is concerning to say the least. Well, especially if I mean Danger Ross is out with illness. He’ll probably be back. But I mean they they just need both those guys to be shooting well or or even just shooting okay and they’ve been getting either really good shooting or really terrible shooting from DLO depending on which game. Dude, what did he go tonight? Did you say one of seven from three? So he’s seven of 44 from three this year. Dang. Like 15% and he’s yet to make two threes in a game. That’s the thing sometimes with these guys with the f like the quick first step is if you can combine it with a three then you’re just like unstoppable. But if you can’t add the three or if you can’t get like then and look this was yeah I mean last year part of he shot 40% from three uh but his first year in the league and granted it’s 24 games his rookie year 17 33 14 so we’re not dealing with big sample sizes here but 29% in 2122 20% in 23 24% last year 16% right now like it’s looking like he’s probably just not a good three-point shooter. Well, then then that’s I mean that’s just you just can’t play a guy like that really in if you want to be like a playoff level offense, right? It’s it’s difficult. So that’s why I say I kind of understand the like what am I Brandon Williams is one of nine from three like does Brandon Williams close this game tonight if DLO is healthy? Uh probably not. But but maybe I mean Brandon Williams like you said to his credit 12 assists like he he he changed what he needed to do and he turned into a passer and got it got it done. True. True. And we don’t know what DLO is liable doing. Like true. We don’t know what he’s doing. Now, DLO did put us in his in his documentary like eight times. So, Oh, really? Oops. The D’Angelo Russell posted a new video. It was It was cool. He posted footage from like our interview from media day. He posted some more clips of us talking about him. And the whole time I’m thinking, man, I hope he doesn’t post any clips from when we when he had a rough game and we talked about him on on the show afterwards. Hey, if he’s going to do if he’s going to do his circle back doc where it’s like, yeah, then I then I had a two-month stretch where I shot 43% from three. This is what they were saying before. I’m all good with that. Yeah, honestly, we’ll I’ll be that. Like, take all the naysaying that I that we did about Angel Russ. If you’re going to do that, I’ll take I’d rather have that and be shamed and shunned than I will gladly be bulletin board material. Yeah. Yeah. That is the funny thing when people are like, why do you why do you call out the team? Like, if we’re bulletin board material, awesome. If that makes them play better, like that would be awesome. That’s right. That is right. I have a vested interest in the Mavericks being good. Yes. I want them to be good. I’m not coming on here just to be like, “Ah, that guy sucks.” It’s like, “Dude, can this guy please make a shot?” Like, please. I’m on my hands and knees. Somebody from the front office asked me about like, “So, you’re just sometimes you just you you can just stay so positive.” And I was like, “Yeah, I want them to win. I have a vested interest in the math.” Wait, someone from the math front office told you that? They asked me like like, “Oh, man. It’s it’s nice that you stay so positive, you know, sometimes.” Why? cuz they’re like behind closed doors here there’s not a lot of positivity. Well, they’re just hearing the only things that they’re hearing are like the the viral rants and just the the crazy things people say and all that. And I’m like, well, I mean, I want them to be good. Like, that is my You and I had such a better time during that finals run than in anything else I’ve ever done in my career. Yes. That was a ton of fun. I wish I appreciated it more, honestly. A I appreciated it the whole time. I mean, I did, but it’s like, well, in that moment, you’re like, we’re going to be back here next year, year after that. Like, you always think that when your team makes the like the championships like like when the Rangers did it, it was like, dude, games the championship game. Well, I was trying to cuz I was trying to mix all sports. So, it’s like they all call it something different. Does any does any team ever make the like the finals or whatever and they’re like, “Guys, we are never coming back.” So, it’s now or now or never. I mean, maybe the 2011 team. No, because I think even then it was like, “Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna get Melo and Dwight and Chris Paul.” We’re never a team that is like we’re never coming back again. The Raptors with with Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Leonard looked at the team and went, “Guys, this is it.” Like, dude, I only have one year here. Do you kind of remember that that Bubble Raptors team was good? The bubble. They were like the Tampa Raptors. No, that was the year after they were they were bad that year, but they were like pretty good that when they when the bubble was a thing because I remember it being like, man, if Kawawaii was here, this team would be even better than last year. I remember that was like the big Well, yeah, that was the year after. I just I also I want to finish before you say goodbye like that was a really fun game. Shout out to Derek Queen. I want to start like highlighting other teams when we play too cuz I I just sense that this is not going to be a very fun uh like Zion was pretty he was pretty quiet to me. Dude, there was 22 points, but I felt like he only he got some of those late. He had some free throws late. Yeah. I mean, he had some incredible like he had an incredible rebound. There’s not there’s not many rebound highlights, but there’s one he grabbed. It was in the first half. He jumped up, grabbed it, spun in the air, and kicked it back out while he while he was in the air. And then he had a block after the f after a whistle that didn’t count. Like just watching him in person was that was insane. I we don’t we haven’t gotten to see that very often because he was only played five here five times. He’s just floating around. Like there was times where it didn’t even feel like you like it felt like Derek Queen’s team, did it not? It did. Yeah. Which, hey, shout out to the Pelicans if that’s the route they’re going. I I’m not ready to give up on Zion cuz he still has that post up when he gets into the paint. It’s like this guy’s scoring. Like there’s just not a single thing. That little drive, that little drive bump, and then just like raise up for a jumper like it kind of felt like like like almost like a Kawawaii shot, but more shoulder than like arm. Yeah. That that shot if it goes down for him. I mean that just no one will be able to stay in front of him. Yeah, I know. He’s just a freak. But I’m really impressed with Derek Queen, man. Really? Eight assists in like the fir eight assists in like literally the first 13 minutes of the game. Was it is it me and Isaac or me and you that talked about the the Pelicans basically made the same trade that the Mavericks did when the Mavs got Luca in the draft cuz they traded their next year pick. It’s just the Pelicans like went so far out of their way. Yeah. And like because the Mavs would have lost that they would have lost that pick and it would if it if they would have been really bad that season then it would have been the Hawks Cam the Cam Reddish. No, I mean if they would have lost that pick and it would have been really high like if they would have been as bad as the Pelicans are right now like they would people would have been saying the same things but Luca ended up being really good and it didn’t matter. So but it was Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. And and it was the same team. It was the Hawks that traded with the M traded with the Maps. Traded with the Pelicans. Was that pick protect? Wasn’t that pick like kind of highly protected though? Was it like top five? I think so. Cuz remember remember the Mavs lost the coin toss with Memphis and they were supposed to like if they won that they would have had the second overall pick. Yes, cuz it cuz they would have gotten Yeah, they would have two. They would have had two cuz they were like one ping- pong ball away. Jaw and Luca. Can you imagine that? And I cannot. That would have been really bizarre. Would Jaw have gotten heavy or would Luca have The blue had to go get a go get regant in the uh city of Dallas, Texas. Yeah, we’d have a lot of problems. I would have to say we’d have the weight problems and then we’d have the uh the other problems. And now we have neither of them. One battle after another. And now we have Cooper Flag. And he was great tonight. Yeah, we got a main we got a main boy. a mayor. Yep. He’s He’s up there. I mean, what’s there to do up there besides just play basketball, I guess, and find and eat consume lobsters. Oysters. That’s right. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. Check out Sly Bias’s YouTube channel. All kinds of great stuff. Playback just pushing you all over the place. One of those. I know, right? One of the great one of the great playbackers we have in in this world. I should get some equity, I think. Honestly. Go check out that great stuff all the time. We’ll have bonus episodes. Isaac had two episodes yesterday, so go check out those. Thanks much for listening to Locked on Maps. Peace out. Boom. Take us there, Coupe.

The Dallas Mavericks secured a clutch win over the New Orleans Pelicans as Cooper Flagg delivered the best game of his young NBA career. Mavs fans saw standout performances and insight on how the team is evolving without Kyrie Irving, with discussion on Anthony Davis, the state of the roster, and implications across the league. Dallas Mavericks, Mavs, Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and NBA fans will find all the analysis, player breakdowns, and key takeaways here.

Nick Angstadt and Slightly Biased break down how Cooper Flagg is establishing himself as a future superstar for the Dallas Mavericks, including a detailed look at his performance and what it means for the Mavs going forward. They also discuss in-depth the games of Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, Max Christie, D’Angelo Russell, and Naji Marshall, plus coaching decisions from Jason Kidd. The episode features insights into team chemistry, strategy, and the impacts of injuries and absences for both the Mavericks and Pelicans, with references to league figures like Anthony Davis and what’s next for Dallas.

0:00 Cooper Flag’s Breakout Performance
12:46 Mavs Role Players Step Up
20:40 Lively, Gafford, and Guard Play…?

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