LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were on the wrong end of another offensive eruption from Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg.
Coming off a career-high 51-point performance on Friday against the Orlando Magic, Flagg kept it going on Sunday night. The former Duke Blue Devils star dropped 45 points on 14-of-27 from the floor to lead Dallas to a 134-128 win over the Lakers.
Flagg also had eight rebounds, nine assists, two steals, one block and two three-pointers in one of his best games of the season.
Simply put, James and Co. had no answer to Flagg, who carried the Mavs to their first win in four games.
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James had quite a lot to say after L.A.’s latest loss. The 41-year-old got brutally honest about his team’s injury crisis after they lost both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves within the span of 48 hours.
James, though, had nothing but high praise for Flagg.
“He's obviously special,” James said. “I mean, I've seen that all the way back to the AAU days when he was coming up in the ranks and playing with his team out of Maine. And just doing the things that he was doing on the circuit. So I knew he was special from there.
“And he's just taking that from what he was doing back home to the AAU circuit, to Duke, and now here. He's just getting better and better and better. It looks like he loves the game, he's putting in the work, so he's gotten better.”
The Lakers superstar, however, is not yet ready to call the race for this season’s Rookie of the Year.
“It's a great rookie class,” James said. “I mean, you look at VJ [Edgecombe] in Philly, you look at Kon [Knueppel] in Charlotte, you look at Dylan [Harper] in San Antonio. It's just a great rookie class. And all those guys are making an impact on their respective teams.
“So [the] league's in good hands with those rooks.”
Knueppel, Flagg’s former teammate at Duke, has been leading the Rookie of the Year race of late. However, Flagg’s recent performances saw him overtake the Hornets forward in the oddsmakers’ books.
