Cooper Flagg was back in the lineup Monday night, and the Mavericks needed every bit of him.
Dallas walked into Miami and left with a 113-109 win, ending the Heat’s 0-4 start and moving the Mavericks to 2-2. Flagg, who missed Saturday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs after coming down on his left shoulder against the Indiana Pacers, came back looking like the guy the Mavericks could lean on when the game got tight. He finished with 29 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, and he kept finding answers when Dallas needed them most.
It wasn’t clean early. Miami struggled to get going offensively and had just 11 points midway through the first quarter, while Dallas moved the ball well, cut hard, and hit shots.
But the Mavericks stalled late in the period, going nearly four minutes without a basket, and the Heat turned that into a 27-23 lead after Giannis Antetokounmpo buried a pull-up three. Zaccharie Risacher had a rough night on offense, and that theme lingered into the second quarter as Dallas again hit a cold stretch after opening with three made shots.
The Heat pushed the lead to 12 in the middle of the frame, helped by Bobby Portis catching fire from deep with three threes in three straight possessions. Dallas steadied itself after a flagrant foul on Daniel Gafford and a double-technical involving Gafford and Portis, then closed the half strong.
Miami managed just four points in the final 5:30 of the second quarter, while the Mavericks scored 17 to flip the game and take a 53-52 edge into halftime. Walter Clayton Jr., who had just signed recently, was a big part of that swing with a pull-up jumper, a three, and a feed to Flagg at the rim.
Then came the Giannis surge. Early in the third quarter, Antetokounmpo scored or assisted on seven of Miami’s first eight baskets as the Heat rebuilt a 10-point cushion.
One of those plays was the kind you don’t forget - a dunk over Gafford that left a mark, literally and figuratively. Gafford absorbed punishment all night and eventually had to sit for much of the second half after picking up his fifth foul in the third.
Dallas kept answering. Clayton hit another three, then set up P.J.
Washington for a floater to trim the margin to five. Kyrie Irving then knocked down a clutch basket at the buzzer to send the Mavericks into the fourth down just one.
Washington did his part in the middle of the fight, too. With Naji Marshall sidelined by illness, Dallas needed his physicality, and he delivered with 20 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.
He was only 6-of-15 from the field, but the toughness showed up all night. One of the best sequences came when he muscled in on a Giannis drive and tied the ball up.
Risacher, despite the rough scoring night, stayed on the floor because of his defense, and eventually knocked down an open three at the top of the key before adding a free throw on the next trip to tie the game at 90. Clayton kept swinging the momentum back Dallas’ way after Pelle Larsson hit a three, scoring twice in a row, including an and-one layup, to launch a 14-4 run that put the Mavericks up seven.
Flagg took over from there. He buried difficult shots all over the floor, including a turnaround and-one jumper with under five minutes left.
Even after Gafford fouled out and Flagg picked up back-to-back offensive fouls, Dallas found enough to hold on. Miami cut it to three after Giannis and Bam Adebayo doubled Irving on a screen, forcing a turnover and leading to a basket the other way.
Flagg answered with a pull-up three to restore a six-point edge, and when the Heat got it back to two with under a minute left, he shut the door.
Irving missed a three, but Flagg then swatted Andrew Wiggins’ attempt from beyond the arc with 30 seconds to play. On the next trip, he beat Wiggins off the dribble to the right, curled around Antetokounmpo’s outstretched arm, and finished with his left hand to make it a four-point game with 10 seconds left.
Clayton deserves his own spotlight. In 17 minutes off the bench, he put up 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists while going 6-of-7 from the floor and finishing at plus-22. With Sergio De Larrea exiting early because of an injury and Marcus Sasser not looking sharp, Dusty May went with Clayton, and he changed the game.
There were also bigger-picture concerns on the Dallas front line. Dereck Lively II and Santi Aldama are still recovering from surgeries, leaving Gafford and Morez Johnson Jr. to carry a heavy load inside. Gafford’s night showed just how much strain that puts on the rotation.
The Mavericks head home next to face the OKC Thunder on Wednesday night.
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