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Cooper Flagg addreses Mavs' disastrous 2-6 start: "For me, it's the most I've lost since, I think, ever"
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- Cooper Flagg addreses Mavs' disastrous 2-6 start: "For me, it's the most I've lost since, I think, ever"
The Dallas Mavericks suffered their third straight loss on Wednesday night, falling to the Zion-less New Orleans Pelicans 99-101 at their home floor.
Without Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving , it was rookie Cooper Flagg who led the way for the Mavericks. Flagg scored 20 points on 8-19 shooting while also pulling down 9 rebounds, issuing two assists, with three steals and two blocked shots.
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Despite the strong effort, they came up short, leaving the 18-year-old rookie a little disheartened during the post-game press conference.
"For me, it's the most I've lost since, I think, ever," Flagg admitted after the game. "It's obviously a lot different, and you have to adapt to just playing a lot more games and get used to that."
Flagg's teams dominated in HS and college
The Mavs still have 74 regular-season games left to play in the 2025-26 NBA season and a lot of things can still happen during this span, including turning their season around. However, at 2-6, this is their worst start since the 2018-19 season, where they finished with a dismal 33-49 record and missed the playoffs.
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It's also the worst win-loss record that Coop has ever seen in his basketball career. Last year, Flagg played on a Duke Blue Devils team that went 35-4, including 19-1 in the ACC Conference.
Two years ago, Cooper led Montverde Academy to a spotless 33-0 record and the national championship. Combined, his prep and college teams had an aggregate record of 112-8 over four years. It's no wonder he sounded frustrated, although he claimed he wasn't.
"I wouldn't say anybody's happy. Guys are obviously trying to stay levelheaded and know that we got a lot more games to go and it's still really early. But I mean, I'm speaking personally. I know it's not fun to just keep losing games. So, I like to make a change and hopefully start making steps for our direction," he added.
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Coop also admitted that the NBA is a tough league
This isn't the first time that Flagg has sounded deflated. Two games ago, the No.1 overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft also admitted that his adjustment to the pro game had not been as smooth as he would have wanted. The NBA is a tougher league than he expected.
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"It's a tough league," said Flagg. "It's a transition. Honestly, I haven't made a lot of shots or been as efficient as I would've wanted to, but I'm gonna keep trusting the work. It's nothing, I think they should be worried about. I'm not worried about anything. Just gotta keep getting better looks, keep being aggressive, and trust the work."
It has not been the start to the season that everyone expected from Flagg and the Mavs. But if there was anything good about Wednesday night's loss to the Pelicans, it was that Jason Kidd finally started D'Angelo Russell at point guard. That was probably also the reason why Coop had a big game. Hopefully, the Mavs figure it out soon. But they need to get healthy first.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Nov 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
