Cooper Flagg scored a season-high 43 points on Monday, November 9, 2026, as the Dallas Mavericks rallied past the Indiana Pacers 125-122 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The 19-year-old added 10 rebounds, six assists, three steals and a block, joining Kevin Durant as one of only two teenagers in NBA history to post a 40-point, 10-rebound game.
FINAL: Dallas Mavericks 125, Indiana Pacers 122
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How to watch: Indiana Pacers vs Dallas Mavericks, Monday, November 9, 2026, 8 p.m. ET at American Airlines Center, Dallas
TV: KFAA-TV and MavsTV (Dallas), FanDuel Sports Network Indiana
Stream: NBA League Pass
Radio: 97.1 The Freak (Dallas), 93.5/107.5 The Fan (Indianapolis)
Cooper Flagg 43 Points, And 30 Of Them After Half-Time
Indiana owned the first half. Pascal Siakam scored 26 of his 29 points before the break, shooting 8 of 9 from the floor and 5 of 6 from three, and he was the only Pacer in double figures as Indiana built a 13-point lead that stood at 66-56 at half-time. Dallas trailed 93-90 entering the fourth quarter, and the comeback ran through two players. Flagg scored 30 of his 43 after half-time and 16 in the fourth, opening the quarter with the basket that tied the game at 93-93.
Flagg and Kyrie Irving combined for 26 points in the fourth quarter, including the Mavericks’ first 13 of the period, as Dallas outscored Indiana 35-29 over the final 12 minutes. Flagg put the finishing touches on the night with a pair of pull-up 18-footers in the final minute, the second of them making it 123-119 with 26 seconds left. Indiana still had a last look: P.J. Washington Jr. missed two free throws with four seconds remaining and Obi Toppin took the rebound, but Caleb Martin tipped away Andrew Nembhard’s pass near the sideline on the Pacers’ final possession.
Second Teenager Ever To Post 40, 10 And 5
The record-book framing came from the league itself. The NBA’s official account posted that Flagg joins Kevin Durant, who did it in 2008, as the only players in NBA history to record 40 or more points, 10 or more rebounds and five or more assists in a single game as a teenager. Durant’s game came for the Seattle SuperSonics in the last game of the 2007-08 season. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported the wider count: this was the fifth 40-point performance of Flagg’s career, while every other teenager to play in the league has combined for 10.
The stat trackers added two more lines to the same night. StatMuse’s numbers, reported by ClutchPoints, make Flagg the first teenager ever to record at least 40 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals in a game, and his seventh career 35-point game ties LeBron James for the most by a teenager in NBA history. The league’s official highlights carry the full performance, from the tying three that opened the fourth quarter to the two pull-ups that closed it:
Irving Gives Dallas A Second Closer
Flagg did not close alone. Irving scored 35 points on 11-of-18 shooting, hit a season-high seven three-pointers and played a season-high 38 minutes, completing both games of a back-to-back for the first time since a torn ACL sidelined him for all of last season. Irving scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, hit the three that put Dallas ahead for good at 98-97, and assisted on Flagg’s three that made it 113-108. The two combined for 78 of the Mavericks’ 125 points.
The locker room verdict was not complicated. “It’s unbelievable. He’s a 19-year-old doing this,” Mavericks coach Dusty May said. Irving, the 34-year-old eight-time All-Star, put it this way: “We keep calling him a teenager, but he plays way beyond his years.” Forward Naji Marshall was blunter: “I didn’t think he was going to be this good.” Flagg’s own summary was shorter. “Tonight, me and Kai had it going,” he said. “There’s hopefully going to be a lot of nights like that.”
The Teen Window Closes On December 21
The season line underneath the record is what makes it more than one hot night. Flagg is now averaging 25.9 points on 50 percent shooting, with 6.9 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 2.0 steals, and the only other player in the league averaging at least those marks in all four categories is Luka Doncic, the former Mavericks star. The 43 points were a season high, up from 33, and the 10 rebounds tied his season high. His midrange game has become the load-bearing piece: according to NBA.com tracking cited by ESPN, he has shot 29 of 49, 59.2 percent, on attempts between 10 and 19 feet this season, and he ranks fourth in the league in clutch scoring with 27 points on 11-of-13 shooting.
He explained the shift after the game as a pacing tool, a way to get to his spots and stop short over defenders instead of driving into 7-footers all night. The colour before the quotes told its own story about a teenager still building the frame: Flagg opened his post-game interview by lamenting that he had forgotten the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches he has been eating during recent games to put weight on.
Dallas improves to 7-4, swept its three-game homestand, and sits three games over .500 for the first time since March 1, 2025. Indiana falls to 3-8. The Mavericks visit Minnesota on Thursday, November 12, and the Pacers host Washington on Wednesday, November 11. Flagg turns 20 on December 21, which gives the teen record book a closing date: every 40-point game between now and then adds to a total no teenager in league history has reached, and after that date the category shuts behind him.
