Cooper Flagg scores a historic 42 points, but Jazz steal victory over Mavericks in overtime

On Monday night, Cooper Flagg broke the record for the most points scored by an 18-year-old in a game in NBA history — taking that distinction from LeBron James.

Flagg scored a career-high 42 points — in a career that is just 27 games old — to go with seven rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal for the Dallas Mavericks.

But the biggest steal of the night was made by the Utah Jazz, who were on the other side of Flagg’s historic night. Despite what Flagg was able to do, it was Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George, an unusual supporting cast and the Jazz that left the Delta Center with a 140-133 overtime win.

Lineup changes and late execution

The Jazz decided to give Jusuf Nurkic, Kevin Love and Svi Mykhailiuk the night off, leaving the team without a traditional center, without most of their veteran players and two open spots in the starting lineup.

Kyle Filipowski and Brice Sensabaugh were called on to round out the starting five and Filipowski had one of his most well-rounded games with 25 points, nine rebounds and some really admirable defensive work.

Taylor Hendricks and Cody Williams came off the bench to add support, and although they haven’t been given much playing time lately and have spent most of their time with the Salt Lake City Stars, they combined for 22 points, and the 11 points from Williams was his season-high.

The new lineups and all-around youth of the team the Jazz fielded on Monday did lead to some weirdness and some early struggles, but that is where Markkanen and George came in to steady the ship.

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George finished with 37 points and six assists and Markkanen closed out the night with 33 points and 16 rebounds.

Markkanen had some trouble scoring early, which was compensated for by George’s 24 first-half points, and then Markkanen came alive in the fourth quarter and overtime, hitting big shots and maybe more importantly, rebounding like his life depended on it.

“His his stat line looks sort of familiar, but the way that he rebounded the ball, especially late in the game, is something that we need him to channel,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said of Markkanen.

“His aggressiveness and physicality to rebound down the stretch of the game is why we won.”

Cooper Flagg

A win for the Mavericks could have been a nice early birthday/Christmas gift for Flagg on top of the magnitude of what he accomplished on Monday.

Not only did he score more points in a single game than any 18-year-old in NBA history, he also matched Mark Aguirre for the most points scored by a rookie in Mavericks history and now trails only James and Kobe Bryant for the most total points scored in the NBA before turning 19.

Flagg’s 19th birthday is Saturday.

But the loss made it hard for the rookie and 2025 No. 1 overall pick to celebrate.

“It’s tough. I want to look at it in wins and losses. Obviously we didn’t win,” Flagg said. “It’s tough for me to want to be happy or anything like that.”

Frankly, Flagg was on pace to score more and to get the bonus of the win, but the Jazz, shockingly played really good defense near the end of regulation and then in overtime.

A lot of the time, it was George who was getting the switch and tasked with guarding Flagg. George had a hard time with that early on, but impressed late.

“Hats off to him, he played a phenomenal game — getting downhill, getting fouled. That’s what you want from your top guys," George said of Flagg.

“But just understanding which way he wanted to go, and then overtime is winning time, so that was the main thing. Just telling myself I wasn’t tired, the group was telling each other we wasn’t tired, and we knew the game was gonna come down to stops.”

So, Flagg will come away with a historic individual performance, but the Jazz got the team victory.