On the second night of a back-to-back for both teams, the Dallas Mavericks somehow found extra juice despite being down a small army of rotation players, and held off the Denver Nuggets in a wild 131-130 finish at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Tuesday night.
Dallas came in licking its wounds after coughing up a double-digit fourth-quarter lead the night before, while Denver rolled in off a beatdown.
None of that mattered early.
The Mavs punched first, exploding to a 14-2 start and turning the opening quarter into a track meet they controlled. And at the center of it all was 19-year-old Cooper Flagg, who looked like he'd already read the scouting report on Nikola Jokic's defense and circled it in red ink.
Flagg couldn't miss. He opened the game by drilling his first seven shots and had Denver scrambling for answers as Dallas ballooned its lead to 18 late in the first.
By halftime, the Mavs were still up 10, fueled by Flagg's ridiculous 22-point first half on near-perfect shooting, while Jamal Murray kept the Nuggets from getting buried with a big second quarter.
Then the game turned into pure chaos.
Denver chipped away all third quarter, and once the Nuggets got the deficit down to one possession, the building could feel the tide shifting.
Dallas answered with a burst that looked like it would finally snap the Nuggets' comeback attempt with a 15-0 run that featured transition buckets, a hard-nosed edge, and Flagg putting a defender on a poster.
But Denver refused to go away, erupting for a massive third quarter of its own to tie it again by the horn.
Then, the fourth quarter was pure stress.
The Nuggets grabbed their first lead of the night early, and from there it was back-and-forth basketball with tight possessions, heavy contact, and both teams even leaning into double-big looks, with Dallas pairing Anthony Davis with Daniel Gafford, Denver countering with Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas.
With 3:15 left, Flagg nailed a huge three to finally create breathing room.
Murray hit right back. Naji Marshall traded punches. Jokic hit one of his signature pop shots to cut it to one in the final seconds, and Denver got a clean look to win, only for Peyton Watson's wide-open three to spin out at the buzzer.
Dallas survived. Again. Mavs 131, Nuggets 130.
Flagg finished with a jaw-dropping 33 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists, with Anthony Davis adding 31 points and 9 boards. Murray posted 31 and 14 dimes, while Jokic nearly matched him with 29 and 14 assists.
The Mavs didn't just win, they proved that when Flagg's shot is falling, Dallas can beat anyone, even shorthanded.