After dueling with VJ Edgecombe on Saturday, Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks visit the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, who are enjoying their best stretch of the season with rookie Derik Queen.
Cooper Flagg has risen up the NBA rookie ladder since averaging 24 points over the Dallas Mavericks' past 10 games, but he's run into two other top rookies this week before the holiday season hits it's peak.
On Saturday, Flagg and the Mavs faced VJ Edgecombe and the Philadelphia 76ers, with the Sixers stretching out a seven-point win 121-114. Edgecombe, picked two places below Flagg in last summer's NBA Draft, dueled with the Mavs star by totaling 26 points, six rebounds and four assists. Flagg finished with 24 points, four rebounds and three assists in the loss.
Now he lines up with another promising first-year player in Derik Queen, who was a teammate of Flagg's in high school at prep power Montverde and whom Dallas has already played twice this year. The No. 13 pick from Maryland has surprised many with his versatility and basketball IQ for his size and age, averaging a solid 13 points, 6.7 rebounds and four assists in his rookie season.
Queen's New Orleans Pelicans host Dallas at Smoothie King Center in the front half of what is a back-to-back for the Mavericks on Monday.
Dallas is 11-18 with the 11th-best record in the Western Conference. New Orleans, at 7-22, joins the Clippers and Kings as the teams with the least amount of wins in the conference. One of those victories, however, came against the Mavs in the teams' first meeting back on Nov. 5 at American Airlines Center.
The Pelicans outlasted the Mavericks 101-99 in that game with Flagg missing a floating jumper at the buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime. Flagg scored 20 points and totaled nine rebounds in the game, and Queen registered 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
They met again in Dallas on Nov. 21, but the Mavs got revenge with a 118-115 finish that saw the rookies take center stage. Queen went for 20 points, seven rebounds and a game-high 11 assists while Flagg poured in 29 points to lead the Mavs to their fifth win of the season in 17 games. New Orleans dropped to 2-14 at that point.
The Pelicans had continued down that losing road, but their current four-game win streak comes at an opportune time for volume three of this new rivalry of budding stars. Meanwhile, the Mavs have also picked things up over the last month, as well, with Flagg becoming more and more aggressive offensively and Dallas welcoming back injured star Anthony Davis.
How to Watch
WHO: Dallas Mavericks (11-18) at New Orleans Pelicans (7-22)
WHERE: Smoothie King Center | New Orleans,LA
WHEN: Monday, Dec. 22 | 7 p.m. CST
TV: KFAA-29 (DFW), MavsTV streaming
RADIO: KEGL 97.1 FM The Eagle (DFW); 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)
Betting Odds
Courtesty of DraftKings
SPREAD: New Orleans -1.5
TOTAL: 240.5
MONEYLINE: New Orleans -112, Dallas -108
Injuries
Dallas:
QUESTIONABLE: Cooper Flagg (back), Max Christie (illness), Klay Thompson (knee)
OUT: Dereck Lively II (foot surgery), Kyrie Irving (knee), Dante Exum (knee surgery)
New Orleans:
QUESTIONABLE: Herb Jones (head)
OUT: Dejounte Murray (Achilles)