Flagg and Irving Shake Off Slow Starts as Mavericks Pull Away From Jazz 112-100

For a half, it looked like the Dallas Mavericks might let another one slip away against a team they had no business losing to. The Utah Jazz, one win all season and losers of six straight coming in, walked into the American Airlines Center and matched Dallas shot for shot, and at halftime the scoreboard read 57-57, a tie that felt a whole lot better for the visitors than it did for the home side. Then Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving remembered who they are. Flagg scored 17 of his 21 points after the break. Irving, who had missed ten of his first eleven shots and managed all of two points before halftime, poured in twelve more in the second half. Together they accounted for 21 of the points in a 22-10 run that turned a one-point Dallas deficit into an 81-70 lead late in the third quarter, and from there the Mavericks never looked back, closing out a 112-100 win in NBA Cup group play on Friday night. It was not a pretty start for either star. Flagg's scoring lagged before halftime, though he kept himself involved the way good rookies do, collecting six rebounds and six assists in the first half before finishing with ten boards and seven dimes to go with his 21 points, three steals and a block. Irving's first half was worse, a 1-of-11 brick-laying exercise that had the crowd murmuring. But the second half told a different story entirely, and by the time Flagg had 13 points and Irving eight in that decisive third-quarter burst, the game had tilted for good. If the stars were slow to arrive, P.J. Washington was there from the opening tip. Washington scored 22 of his season-high 26 points in the first half, hitting five of six three-pointers and all five of his free throws, and it was his shooting that kept Dallas level while Flagg and Irving searched for rhythm. His sixth and final three of the night helped Dallas keep a double-digit cushion through the fourth quarter, and the Mavericks cruised home from there. There was a nice subplot in the frontcourt, too. Morez Johnson Jr. tied his season best with 13 points and pulled down 17 rebounds for his first career double-double, sealing it with a one-handed alley-oop dunk, and Santi Aldama chipped in eight points and nine rebounds in his first game since February 4 last season with Memphis, the 7-footer back after right knee surgery in March and a summer move in a six-team trade. For Utah, the story was depressingly familiar. Lauri Markkanen scored 24 points and rookie Darryn Peterson added 21, but the Jazz lost their seventh game in a row to fall to 1-8, and the late rally never came — Josh Okogie's three at the third-quarter buzzer was the closest thing to a spark they managed all night. Dallas, meanwhile, improved to 5-4 and, just as importantly, to 2-0 in NBA Cup group play after a two-game losing skid. The Mavericks have made a habit of winning ugly this season, and Friday was another entry in that ledger: a tie game at the half against the league's worst team, rescued by a third-quarter surge and a reminder that their two best players do not stay quiet for long. The Jazz head to Minnesota on Sunday. Dallas hosts Brooklyn the same day, and if the first half on Friday is anything to go by, the Mavericks would do well to start a little faster.