Cooper Flagg and Mavs Show Promise Despite Preseason Loss to Rockets

Houston beat Dallas 135-117 on Friday morning at The Venetian Arena, in front of a packed house for the NBA's annual trip to China, with Yao Ming watching from a courtside seat. Kyrie Irving did not play. Neither did P.J. Washington, Santi Aldama or Marcus Sasser.

What the crowd got instead was a long look at Cooper Flagg and a first glimpse of how Dusty May wants this team to play.

Flagg scored 17 of his 19 points in the second quarter, carrying an offense that otherwise struggled, before sitting out the entire second half. He finished 7-of-14 from the field in 19 minutes, adding six rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block while going a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.

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The start was slow, with Houston jumping ahead 27-19 after one quarter. Once Flagg got going, though, he was the only Maverick who looked comfortable creating anything.

The midrange jumper looked especially good. Flagg got to his spots with ease and knocked down pull-ups confidently, which is worth noting from a player who spent his offseason reworking his shot.

He went just 1-of-5 from 3-point range, though the volume itself tells a story. Flagg attempted five 3-pointers in one half after reaching that number only 17 times across all of last season.

That fits what Dallas did as a team, and it was the most encouraging development of the night. The Mavericks launched 51 3-pointers, two more than their highest total in any game last season. For a team that ranked 27th in the league in 3-point attempts, that is a dramatic shift in approach and a clear signal that May intends to attack the problem rather than hope it resolves itself.

The lineup decisions offered their own intrigue. Morez Johnson Jr. started at center over Daniel Gafford, a notable call for a rookie who was limited through much of training camp with lower leg soreness. Both Johnson and Gafford then knocked down the first 3-pointers of their NBA careers in the first quarter, which is either a sign of the times or a sign that nothing about this preseason should be taken too literally.

Zaccharie Risacher also started, which is worth noting on its own. The former No. 1 overall pick arrived from Atlanta this summer after a sophomore season in which his role shrank. 

In his debut, He was passive and soft at times in the first half and didn't assert himself offensively. The second half went better: Risacher curled off a screen and pulled up for his first 3-pointer of the preseason with 7:50 left in the third quarter as Dallas chipped away at a 20-point deficit. That is the version the Mavericks need. He has said he likes playing off the ball and expects to switch across positions defensively, which fits exactly what this roster is built to do.

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Sergio de Larrea was the most settled Maverick outside of Flagg. The rookie guard finished with 11 points and six assists in 23 minutes, continuing the playmaking that made him a standout in summer league, where he averaged 8.8 assists per game.

The four turnovers are the part to watch. Handling NBA ball pressure and physicality was identified as his primary developmental hurdle coming out of Las Vegas, and that showed up at times against a Houston team that pressures as aggressively as anyone. Still, this was an encouraging first look. The 6-foot-7 Spaniard sees the floor at a level few rookies do, and Dallas cleared the backup point guard job for him when it traded Ryan Nembhard to Atlanta in the deal that brought Risacher over.

Naji Marshall added 16 points, and Max Christie had a productive night as well.

Irving is scheduled to appear in Sunday's rematch, which will be his first game action since tearing his ACL in March 2025. Dallas and Houston meet again at 5 a.m. Central, closing out the China trip before the Mavericks return home to face New Orleans on Oct. 14.