‘15-Year Age Gap’: Kyrie Irving Says He And Cooper Flagg Tune Out Chatter After Combining For 68 Against Houston Rockets

DALLAS — Kyrie Irving said he and Cooper Flagg have tuned out talk about the years between them after the pair combined for 68 points in the Dallas Mavericks’ 116-111 win over the Houston Rockets on Friday night. Irving scored 35, and Flagg added 33 as Dallas handed Houston its first loss of the season.

Irving is 34. Flagg turns 20 on Dec. 21, and he won the 2025-26 Rookie of the Year award while Irving spent that entire season rehabbing a torn ACL. Together on Friday, they shot 25-of-38 and finished with 13 rebounds and 15 assists.

Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg Split The Closing Load

The two scored 27 of the Mavericks’ 40 points in the fourth quarter, 16 by Irving and 11 by Flagg. With 2:08 left, Flagg found Irving for a pull-up that put Dallas ahead 102-100. On the next trip down, Irving fed Flagg for a floater through a foul, and the free throw made it 105-100.

Irving assisted on 4 baskets in the fourth, and Flagg assisted on 2. Irving spoke about the partnership in the locker room after the game.

“It’s beautiful to watch, whether the ball’s in my hands or the ball’s in his hands,” Irving said. “He’s gonna get into the paint. I’m gonna be an outside perimeter threat. He can be an outside perimeter threat, I can get in the paint. But I think overall our teammates trust in us to be able to make the right plays.”

“And then, honestly, just in reality, just having a teenager out there, making these tough shots and getting and-ones and being as clutch as anyone I’ve seen, it’s just amazing to be a part of. It does take some pressure off of me to be able to make plays down the stretch,” Irving continued. “And I think that’s what makes it beautiful to watch and experience. And we’re still growing. I think he said it best. We still have a level that we wanna get to, a higher level, and we’re gonna continue to push each other to do so.”

“We obviously know the external chatter as well about the 15-year age gap and what we can accomplish and how we’re gonna mesh. And I think we kind of throw that out the window and just really focused on what we can control, which is our effort and how we treat each other, and then bigging up each other’s skill sets,” Irving added. “He’s a very diverse threat. I’m a very diverse threat. We just play off each other well.”

Friday marked the first time since Feb. 5, 2026, that Dallas had two 30-point scorers in the same game. Naji Marshall and Flagg did it that night against the San Antonio Spurs. The last Mavericks duo to each reach 33 in one game was Luka Dončić and Irving in 2023-24.

Flagg scored 15 of his points before halftime, and Irving scored 26 of his after it. Mavericks coach Dusty May went through what the two did for each other in the final minutes.

“When you go back and look at it, one of them would screen the other one. One of them would cut to get some attention on the other one,” May said. “And also too, it’s just tough to go, when you’re in a tight game, probably six minutes left, it’s a one-possession game, for one guy to do it over and over and over and over and over. It’s taxing.”

“And then the defense that they have to play and exert the energy they have to exert on the other end,” May continued. “For those guys to be able to share that load and have two guys who just are closers like they are, there’s several layers to it that makes you feel good, very confident going into close games.”

Flagg Learns From Irving In Person

Flagg averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists as a rookie without Irving on the floor. Friday was the 75th game of his NBA career and Irving’s fifth since returning from the knee injury.

“I talked to him a lot about it last year. Try to learn from him from the mental side,” Flagg said of Irving. “But I think more and more as we’ve gone into this year, being able to see it in person and on the court from him and be able to learn from the experience has been really cool too. It’s felt great. Obviously, he’s just so fun to play off of. I’ve talked about his gravity a lot, so it makes the game easy.”

The Mavericks had assists on 24 of their 42 made baskets, and 15 of those came from Irving and Flagg. Flagg said the two took turns running the offense.

“I thought, like I said, just playing off each other really well. He was able to go on runs and be a very vocal leader with the ball in his hands,” Flagg said. “I was able to come in, contribute in a very similar way, and kind of just made the game easier for each other. And I thought that was really, really good.”

Dallas has won three straight and is 4-2. The Mavericks host the Sacramento Kings on Monday at 7 p.m. CT.