Cooper Flagg cemented himself as the Dallas Mavericks’ (12-18) fearless leader on Tuesday night in a 131-130 win over the Denver Nuggets (21-8) at American Airlines Center. After sprinting out to a 21-point lead early in the second quarter, the Mavs let the Nuggets creep back into the game in the second and third quarters, but Dallas had enough in the tank to stave off a furious Nuggets’ comeback attempt in what turned into a back-and-forth final quarter.
Payton Watson had an open baseline 3-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer, but it rattled in and out, and the Mavericks’ gamble to keep the ball out of the hands of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray paid off.
That was an incredibly gutty win behind yet another stellar performance from Flagg, who is playing like a hardened veteran two days after his 19th birthday. Flagg led all scorers with 33 points and came up just a rebound and an assist shy of the first triple-double of his career in the win. Anthony Davis contributed 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting and nine boards. Naji Marshall chipped in 15 as well.
Jokic and Murray scored 31 and 29 and paired their scoring with 14 assists apiece in the loss. The Mavs turned the ball over just 10 times, which is always a good sign for this team. Here are a whopping eight more stats from a whopper of a win, Dallas’ second straight against one of the best teams in the West.
20-4: Mavericks’ early first-quarter run
After Anthony Davis’ alley-oop finish from Ryan Nembhard to open the game and Spencer Jones’ jumper in response, the Mavericks launched into a 12-0 run over the next 2:40 to take a 14-2 early lead. Davis scored two more buckets, including another dunk on a nice find from Naji Marshall, during the run. The Mavericks forced four Denver turnovers in the game’s first four minutes after the Nuggets came in averaging just 13.3 giveaways per game, good for third best in the NBA.
Davis’ third dunk of the first quarter, this time on a clever find from Cooper Flagg on a pick-and-roll slip, gave the Mavs a 16-4 lead with 7:47 left in the first quarter. Davis was active early on a night when the back court was banged up, forcing the seldom-used Jaden Hardy into his first start of the season against Denver. Hardy Scored his first bucket of the game on a runner in the lane before Marshall joined the party midway through the first on a cutting bucket inside to extend the Dallas lead to 22-6 midway through the opener.
The Nuggets decided to double-team Davis after his hot start to the game, which opened up driving and cutting lanes for the rest of the Mavs’ offense. After the Nuggets halted what became a 19-4 Mavs run, even D’Angelo Russell joined the scoring party, hitting his first 3-point attempt of the game with 3:55 left in the first to extend Dallas’ lead to 29-13.
The Nuggets responded with a 14-2 run of their own later in the quarter to briefly cut the Mavericks’ lead to six, but Dallas scored the last eight points of the first to take a 41-27 lead after one. Dallas shot 18-of-25 (72%) from the field in the first quarter.
7-of-7: Cooper Flagg’s shooting start
Flagg made his first five buckets of the game before cashing in on his first 3-pointer of the game with 29 seconds remaining in the first quarter. He poured it in from near the top of the key on Russell’s third assist of the first quarter to turn the tide after Denver’s 14-2 scoring spurt. Nembhard connected on his first 3-ball of the game the next time down to extend the Dallas lead back to 14 points, up 41-27, in the final seconds of the first.
The Mavericks shot 3-of-6 from distance in the opening frame, and Flagg led all scorers with 14 points after one. He found Daniel Gafford for an athletic alley-oop slam as the Denver defense collapsed on Flagg as he drove to the basket on the Mavericks’ first possession of the second quarter, his third assist of the game. Two possessions later, Flagg hit his second 3-pointer of the game from three feet behind the top of the key to give Dallas even more cushion on the scoreboard, up 48-29, less than two minutes into the second quarter.
Flagg was, as they say, on one early against the Nugs. He finally missed his first shot with 8:40 left in the second on a pull-up jumper that you’d want him to shoot every time it’s available. Without P.J. Washington (foot), Klay Thompson (knee) and Max Christie (illness) in the lineup against the Nuggets, the Mavs offense flowed through Flagg early and often, which is the way it needs to be every night. Flagg scored 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting in the first half, grabbed four rebounds and dished four assists on his way to a XXXXXXX.
But he didn’t just get it done on the offensive end. Flagg blocked an alley-oop dunk attempt from Spencer Jones three minutes into the game and forced a transition miss as the last defender back late in the second quarter by going straight up in the air on what otherwise would have been an easy make as Denver had cut the Mavs’ lead to single digits as the second quarter wore on.
14: Second-quarter points for Jamal Murray
DALLAS, TX – DECEMBER 23: Jamal Murray #27 of the Denver Nuggets shoots the ball during the game against the Dallas Mavericks on December 23, 2025 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images) NBAE via Getty Images
Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray scored 20 points of his own in the first half, on 5-of-6 shooting in the second quarter. He briefly cut the Mavs’ lead to seven, 63-56, with less than a minute left in the second on his second 3-point make of the game. He overtook Flagg for high-point man in the game with that stroke, but Flagg rose up for his third of the game the next time down to give Dallas back a 10-point lead, 66-56, at the break.
Flagg’s three 3-pointers in the first half matched his season- and career-high mark for a single game, and we still had an entire half to play. God help the rest of the NBA if Flagg ever becomes a bonafide 3-point shooter in this league. He’s got plenty of time to develop his outside shot, as he just turned 19 on Sunday.
But we were talking about Murray, weren’t we? His second-quarter explosion brought haunting flashbacks from his 45-point night against the Mavericks last season, in a 118-99 beatdown in January.
8: Third-quarter assists from Nikola Jokic
Murray and Nikola Jokic dominated play coming out of halftime, as the Nuggets doubled the Mavs up, 20-10 in the first 5:20 after halftime. Jokic recorded five assists, and Murray dished two more in that span, which saw the Nuggets tie the game, 76-76, on Cam Johnson’s first 3-pointer of the game. Jokic sucked in the Dallas defense then kicked it out for his ninth assist of the game on the play.
Jokic scored 10 points in the third to go along with eight assists and four rebounds in the frame. His eight assists were the second-most in any quarter in Jokic’s career.
15-0: Dallas’ third-quarter run
But the Mavs, behind another burst from Flagg, showed some chutzpah in response to Denver’s body blows out of halftime. Flagg scored sis more points, to give him 28 for the game, during a 15-0 run that gave the Mavs some breathing room once again, up 91-76 after a three-point play from Martin with four minutes left in the third.
Dallas could have folded as the Denver onslaught crashed down upon them after halftime, but they didn’t. They were never going to blow the Nuggets out, but through three quarters at least, they were able to absorb the Denver run and punch back when an opportunity presented itself.
27-12: Denver’s scoring flurry to finish the third quarter
The only problem with trading blows with a team like the Nuggets is that there’s always another one coming. The Nuggets outscored the Mavs 27-12 in the final four minutes of the third after that 15-0 Dallas run. Jokic was making every play on the floor to bring Denver all the way back.
He scored or assisted on four of the last five Nuggets’ baskets of the third to close the gap entirely. Jokic found Bruce Brown with a look-away pass under the basket with just five ticks left on the clock to tie the game, 103-103, heading into the fourth.
On the other end of the floor, the Nuggets began sending double-teams Flagg’s way to get the ball out of his hands early in the shot clock. The rest of the Dallas offense sputtered a little without its number one option scoring at will, as Flagg did in the first half.
4: Cooper Flagg 3-pointers
As Flagg crept closer and closer to the first triple-double of his career, he crossed another item off the statistical list late in the fourth quarter. He nailed his fourth 3-pointer of the game with 3:17 left to play on a kick-out pass from Davis, to give the Mavs a 126-121 lead. He hit three 3-pointers on Nov. 12 in a 123-114 loss to the Phoenix Suns, but his fourth against the Nuggets set a new career-high mark.
Flagg drove for a floater to give him 33 points on the night the next time down the floor and keep the Mavericks ahead, 128-123. A minute later, he sent a skip pass to Marshall, who was waiting in the corner for his first 3-pointer of the game, to make it 131-125. He was everywhere on Tuesday on a night when the Mavs needed everything Flagg could give them.
“Just coming together, trying to have each other’s back,” Cooper Flagg said in his televised postgame interview. “We’re learning. We’ve been in a lot of close games, so just trying to learn from it and get better.”
23: Points from former Maverick Tim Hardaway Jr.
Tim Hardaway Jr. hit seven 3-pointers of his own in the loss, scoring all 23 of his points in the first three quarters. The last time Hardaway hit seven 3-pointers in American Airlines Center was in January 2024, when both he and Kyrie Irving eclipsed the 40-point mark in a 125-120 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Nuggets have been leaning on Hardaway’s scoring off the bench a little more lately, after Christian Braun’s recent ankle injury. His final 3-ball of the game on Tuesday came with 2:14 left in the third and pulled the Nuggets to within 100-90.
He did not score in the fourth quarter, even after a late third-quarter knee injury suffered by Johnson.