{"id":700847,"date":"2026-04-06T04:57:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T04:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700847\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T04:57:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T04:57:59","slug":"mavericks-rookie-cooper-flagg-scores-45-points-in-win-over-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700847\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg scores 45 points in win over Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Mavericks<\/a> rookie Cooper Flagg<\/a> recorded his second consecutive impressive game and made history in the process.<\/p>\n

Flagg scored 45 points in a 134-128<\/a> win over the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> at American Airlines Center on Sunday, April 5, becoming the first rookie to score 40 points in a game against LeBron James.<\/p>\n

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Flagg got off to a fast start, going 7-of-10 from the field for 19 points in the first quarter. He then finished the first half with 26 points.<\/p>\n

James finished with a team-high 30 points as the Lakers continue to march toward the postseason without the services of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. While Doncic suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain<\/a>\u00a0that will sideline him for the rest of the regular season, Reaves suffered an oblique injury<\/a>\u00a0that is expected to keep him sidelined for four to six weeks. Doncic’s status for the postseason is not yet known.<\/p>\n

In Sunday’s game, Flagg and James made some history together. They are the first players in NBA history to score 20 or more points in the same game, with one player aged 40-plus and another a teenager, according to the NBA.<\/p>\n

Coming off a career-high 51 points on April 3<\/a>, Flagg is also the first rookie since Allen Iverson during the 1996-97 season to score 40 or more points in back-to-back games, according to the NBA<\/a>. Flagg has four 40-plus point games this season and is averaging 20.8 points per game.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a breakdown of Flagg’s performance against the Lakers on Sunday:<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

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2 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Washington Wizards’ Cam Whitmore dunks the ball against the Charlotte Hornets at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Brooklyn Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. dunks in front of the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama at Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 25: The Denver Nuggets’ Christian Braun dunks the ball against the Phoenix Suns’ Grayson Allen at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. dunks against the Miami Heat at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

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6 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo dunks over the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

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7 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The New York Knicks’ OG Anunoby goes up for a reverse dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

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8 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The Utah Jazz’s Lauri Markkanen dunks against the Los Angeles Clippers at Delta Center.<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg stats vs. LakersMavericks vs. Lakers highlights<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cooper Flagg points: How did Dallas Mavericks rookie do vs. Lakers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg recorded his second consecutive impressive game and made history in the process. Flagg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[6071,1013,7,225,149,144,185,150,368,295,189,3881,6,4485],"class_list":{"0":"post-700847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-american-airlines-center","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-cooper-flagg","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-heat","14":"tag-lebron-james","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-luka-doncic","17":"tag-miami","18":"tag-miami-heat","19":"tag-miamiheat","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-points-per-game"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116355997980744141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700847","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=700847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}