Dallas is facing Cleveland for the second game in a row after losing in a blowout on Friday.
The Dallas Mavericks were beaten by the Cleveland Cavaliers 138-105 in Dallas on Friday.
Now, the team turns around to face the Cavs again, this time at Rocket Arena in Cleveland Sunday afternoon.
Evan Mobley was effective last time out for the Cavaliers with a season-high 29 points. He was in a groove from the opening tip, shooting 12-of-15 from the floor in just 23 minutes of action in the blowout win.
"We talked about Mobley being really good. We talked about how we had to be physical with him, and we weren't," Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said after the game.
The outing did feature a pair of historic performances for Dallas, despite the loss marking the team's ninth loss in their last 10 games.
Rookie phenom Cooper Flagg posted 25 points. It's his 25th game scoring at least 20 points in his inaugural season. This year's No. 1 overall pick eclipsed Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant for the sixth-most 20+ scoring games by a teenager in NBA history.
Flagg's running mate, undrafted rookie point guard Ryan Nembhard, also recorded nine assists, which, paired with Flagg's five helpers, set a new Mavs franchise record. The rookie pair totaled five assists apiece for the ninth time this season, which tops the previous season high for a Mavericks rookie duo set by Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson in 2018-19.
The weight of this game remained focused on Cleveland's pure dominance on all three levels of the floor.
The Cavs shot an astounding 62 percent from the field (56-of-91) and nailed 47 percent of their 3-point attempts (18-of-38).
Under the basket, Dallas was out-rebounded 45-40. The Mavs are without bouncy center Dereck Lively II, and that size disadvantage was evident in Kidd's postgame remarks.
He also acknowledged the recently-acquired veteran James Harden, who scored 17 to go with seven assists and seven rebounds for Cleveland.
"They definitely both are capable of going big," Kidd said. "Harden’s one of the best players in the world.
"I think we all know he has the step-back for a three, he can drive you. Again, it’s just being discipline, show your hands, keep him off the free throw line and make it hard for him. He’s going to make tough shots. He’s one of the best scorers in this league."
Flagg knows that the team's ultimate goal is to win, and at 22-45 on the season, there hasn't been much of that. He previewed how the Mavs can adjust to Cleveland's attack for Sunday's opportunity for revenge.
"We just have to show them more of a presence, more physicality," Flagg said. "They started out killing us in the paint and that led to a lot of easy spread threes.
"We just got to take pride on that end of the floor."
Cleveland (41-26) hosts Dallas at 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, with the game airing live on NBA TV.
