{"id":624235,"date":"2026-02-25T15:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/624235\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:46:17","slug":"flagg-less-mavericks-dump-slumping-nets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/624235\/","title":{"rendered":"Flagg-less Mavericks dump slumping Nets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 16,510 fans that dug out of the snow Tuesday night to gather on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush were eager to get a close look at Dallas rookie Cooper Flagg.<\/p>\n

Instead, they watched the Nets fall to 5-22 in the new year without catching a glimpse of the top overall pick in last June\u2019s NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Flagg continued to sit out with an injured foot, denying him an opportunity to strut his stuff in front of the Brooklyn faithful, but Marvin Bagley III came off the bench to pour in 22 points as the Mavericks held off the Nets, 123-114, at Downtown\u2019s Barclays Center.<\/p>\n

In his first two career meetings with the Nets (15-42), Flagg accumulated 24.5 points, 6.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds in a pair of Dallas wins.<\/p>\n

Both of those contests were at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

This long-awaited Brooklyn debut of the player most of our borough\u2019s basketball fanatics were hoping to see in a Nets uniform didn\u2019t go off as planned.<\/p>\n

Flagg has been out since Feb. 10 with the injury and was ruled out well ahead of Dallas landing in New York at 1 p.m. Tuesday after being stuck in Indiana for a couple of days following a 134-130 win over the Pacers on Sunday.<\/p>\n

His absence cleared the way for Nets rookie and eighth overall pick Egor D\u0451min to demonstrate that he could turn out to be Brooklyn\u2019s version of his fellow 19-year-old draftee.<\/p>\n

However, the Moscow native scored three points on 1-of-7 shooting, the same line he put up in his first meeting with Flagg and the Mavericks (21-36) on Dec. 12.<\/p>\n

D\u0451min sat out the rematch exactly one month later, watching from the bench as the Duke alum put up 27 points to lift Dallas to a 113-105 triumph.<\/p>\n

This time, Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks\u2019 pick had the Barclays hardwood all to himself.<\/p>\n

But he and fellow rookie Nolan Traor\u00e9 combined for 11 points on 5-of-18 shooting, including a 1-of-9 effort from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it will go in, sometimes it will not go in,\u201d Nets coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said of D\u0451min\u2019s rough shooting night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOther things that he can do (are) the cutting, touch the paint with the ball, fight screens, find the rim, get to the free throw line,\u201d he added. \u201cSo all those things are one step at a time, but, you know, probably want to see more of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynNets rookie Egor D\u0451min endured a dismal shooting night while fellow rookie Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks sat out Tuesday at Barclays Center. Photo: Frank Franklin II\/AP<\/p>\n

After trailing by as many as 15, the Nets finally began reeling the Mavs in during the early stages of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

D\u0451min\u2019s first and only made shot, a 24-footer, cut the deficit to 115-109 with 3:22 to play. Noah Clowney, who scored 22 points, added a pair of free throws to put the pressure on Dallas.<\/p>\n

That was before Naji Marshall, Bagley and Max Christie scored on successive trips to up the lead to 121-111 with just over a minute remaining.<\/p>\n

The Nets also had travel issues and also didn\u2019t arrive home until Tuesday afternoon following Sunday\u2019s tough loss in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez wasn\u2019t interested in how the teams got to Barclays. Just how they finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think they went through the same, so no excuses,\u201d noted the second-year coach after watching his team lose its fifth straight and 15th in the last 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously (the travel concerns) affects your rhythm, affects your routine,\u201d he added. \u201cYou know, that\u2019s for sure, but don\u2019t want to use an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall finished with 21 points and Brandon Williams added 19 off the pine for the Mavs, who completed a three-game season-series sweep with their second straight win following a season-high 10-game slide.<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. scored a team-high 26 points, but didn\u2019t pull a single rebound for the Nets, who lost the battle along the boards by a whopping 44-28 count, including 10-5 off the offensive glass.<\/p>\n

Nic Claxton had 16 points and nine assists, but only four rebounds and Terance Mann had 17 points off the bench on 6-of-9 shooting for Brooklyn, which got outscored in the paint 66-50.<\/p>\n

Veterans like Mann, Day\u2019Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams have become accustomed to taking on reserve roles while the Nets test out the talent they received during an historic draft haul of five first-rounders.<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t stopped the seventh-year guard out of Florida State from contributing to this ongoing Brooklyn rebuild, be it on the floor or off it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just here to help,\u201d Mann said. \u201cWe have a different direction than a lot of teams, and we need guys like me to be there to be able to \u2026 help the young guys grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd show them how to be professional. So, I\u2019m just trying to \u2026 lead by example and show them the right things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

After watching the youngest team in the NBA squander an 11-point, fourth-quarter lead to the Hawks, Mann scored eight straight, including his only made 3-balls on back-to-back trips, to draw Brooklyn within 104-102 with 7:42 left on the clock Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Dallas sharp-shooter Klay Thompson answered with a 30-footer and the Mavs proceeded to keep Brooklyn winless since the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

The Nets will be back in action at Barclays on Thursday vs. San Antonio (41-16).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The game will air locally on the YES Network.<\/p>\n

\"DallasTerance Mann\u2019s 17 points weren\u2019t enough to help the Nets avert their fifth loss in a row and 15th in 18 contests Tuesday. Photo: Frank Franklin II\/AP<\/p>\n

NOTHING BUT NET: D\u0451min and Traor\u00e9 haven\u2019t exactly been lighting it up shooting-wise as a rookie backcourt tandem. In the last two games, the duo has gone 14-for-43 from the floor. Traor\u00e9 has eight turnovers during that stretch. \u2026 Mann\u2019s 17 points were his most since he put up 17 on Philadelphia in a loss here on Nov. 2. He left Tuesday\u2019s game with 6:50 remaining and never returned. \u2026 After hosting the red-hot Spurs, winners of a season-high nine in a row entering their game in Toronto on Wednesday, the Nets will travel to Boston on Friday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 16,510 fans that dug out of the snow Tuesday night to gather on the corner of Atlantic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,225,53053,166,26565,6,671],"class_list":{"0":"post-624235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-cooper-flagg","13":"tag-jt-torenli","14":"tag-mavericks","15":"tag-national-basketball-association-nba","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116132052594154491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}