The Dallas Mavericks (12-20) faked a comeback and faded down the stretch of a 126-116 loss to the Golden State Warriors (16-15) at the Chase Center on Thursday, leaving fans with a lump of coal in their stocking this Christmas.
The consolation prize was another stellar performance by rookie sensation Cooper Flagg, who scored 27 points on 13-of-21 shooting, grabbed six rebounds and dished five assists in the loss. Brandon Williams added 26 points off the bench, pouring in 18 of his in the second half.
Steph Curry shrugged off a 2-of-10 night from 3-point land to lead the Warriors with 23 points in the win. Seven Warriors scored in double figures against the Mavericks on a night when Golden State went frigid from 3-point range in the second half (3-of-23, 13%).
Here are six more stats that tell the tale of the Mavs’ latest lackluster loss.
2: Cooper Flagg’s first-quarter shot attempts
He just turned 19. Latitude needs to be extended to Flagg as he continues to grow into his NBA shoes, of course. But under no circumstances should any player coming off a 33-point, nine-rebound, nine-assist supernova game be shoved into a box to start the following game. Too many times, especially on nights when other parts of the offense have gotten off to a slow start, Flagg has drifted off into the corner and his teammates seem to have forgotten about him.
Flagg needs to be more assertive at the start of games, and that will come as he continues to develop more and more feel for life in the NBA, but it’s not all on him, either. Head coach Jason Kidd needs to stress Flagg’s importance to a greater degree than we’ve seen thus far. His teammates need to seek him out. They still seem surprised every time he does something that hasn’t been done by someone his age since LeBron James. At some point, hopefully sooner than later, the shock of his sudden ascendancy will wear off, and they will simply defer to Flagg as he puts more and more skins on the wall.
Flagg’s only bucket of the first quarter came when the game was just 1:20 old, on a driving bucket assisted by Ryan Nembhard. He didn’t get up a shot in the first quarter’s final 8:11. He got lost in the shuffle, and the Warriors started to pull away as the quarter wore on, taking a 40-28 lead after one.
He would rectify the situation in the final three quarters, though.
12: First-quarter scoring from Al Horford
Al Horford, the ageless wonder, came in midway through the first quarter and poured in four 3-pointers off the bench after Golden State started the game 0-for-6 from 3-point range. The 39-year-old was wide open along the perimeter on all four of those makes.
Horford’s first 3-pointer put the Warriors up 25-20 with 3:43 left in the first. His third and fourth both came in the last 33 seconds of the opening frame as the Warriors flawlessly executed the 2-for-1 sequence to end the first quarter.
The Warriors attempted 14 deep balls in the first quarter, while the Mavs shot just two. Horford scored just two more points in the win, finishing the game with 14.
10: Cooper Flagg’s scoring in final 6:53 of the first half
Flagg was held scoreless for an unforgivably long stretch of 15:47 of game time until he came alive midway through the second quarter. He scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the final 6:53 of the first half to keep the Mavericks within shouting distance as the rest of the Dallas offense was on life support.
Anthony Davis, who was just 1-of-4 from the field and 1-of-4 from the free-throw line to that point, left the game after coming up lame in transition with 8:50 left in the second quarter. As he watched an outlet pass from Naji Marshall sail over his head and out of bounds, Davis headed straight for the bench and retreated to the locker room minutes later. It appeared to be an injury to the right groin.
Eight of Flagg’s 10 points in the second quarter came in the last 3:09 of the frame. He scored tough buckets on three straight possessions to keep the Mavs within a single-digit margin, but Golden State extended its lead to 13 late in the second and took a 71-58 lead into the break.
Even ESPN’s Charles Barkley, who was high on the Mavericks this preseason, seems to be getting the picture.
“Anthony Davis is never going to be healthy,” Barkley said in his halftime analysis. “This is Cooper Flagg’s team. I would move on … the experiment is over.”
3-of-23: Warriors’ second-half 3-point shooting
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – DECEMBER 25: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors drives to the basket during the game against the Dallas Mavericks on December 25, 2025 at Chase Center in San Francisco, California. 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 Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/NBAE via Getty Images) NBAE via Getty Images
The Warriors shot 11-of-27 (40.7%) from 3-point range in the first half to fuel their 13-point lead at the break. They went into the freezer from deep for the first 20 minutes of the second half, though, making just one of their next 19 from deep. They ended up shooting 3-of-23 from 3-point land in the second half and 14-of-50 (28%) for the game.
Still, the Mavericks couldn’t manufacture any kind of meaningful comeback against Golden State. Dallas worked the lead down to five on a driving reverse layup from Brandon Williams with 6:48 left to play, but the Warriors always had a response. Curry missed his next 3-ball with 4:44 left on the clock and the Warriors nursing a 108-102 lead, to make him 1-of-9 on the evening. He cashed in his next one, though, a minute later, to extend the Golden State lead back to 11 points, 115-104.
Williams scored 11 points off the bench in the third quarter, when Flagg needed a running mate, and fed Flagg for an alley-oop in transition with 3:02 left in the game to bring the Mavs to within 115-106, but nine points in three minutes would prove to be too tall a hill for these Mavericks to climb.
27: Cooper Flagg’s impressive Christmas Day scoring total
Flagg scored 25 of his game-high 27 points in the final three quarters of the game in yet another game that saw him do something that hasn’t been done since James did it in his rookie year. Flagg became just the second teenager ever to score 25 or more points on Christmas Day. James scored 34 points on Christmas 2003 in a 113-101 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic.
Flagg also became the first rookie to score 25 points, grab five rebounds and dish five assists in a Christmas Day game since Pistol Pete Maravich did it in 1970. He finished with six boards and five dimes in the loss at the Warriors.
He is the future and the future is now for the Mavericks. It’s time for this franchise to plant both feet firmly in the Cooper Flagg Era of Mavericks basketball. Flagg has now made 27-of-42 (64.3%) field goal attempts in his last two games.
5: Mavericks’ current road losing streak
Another statistical oddity presented itself in the Mavericks’ loss to the Warriors. The team has now lost five straight on the road but won its last five at home. This team is an unsolvable riddle, and one that many fans have already given up on figuring out.
Dallas will have a chance to snap its current five-game road losing streak on Saturday, when they square off with the Kings at the Golden 1 Center.