MACAO — Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg played their first game together Sunday, and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Houston Rockets 132-115 at The Venetian Arena. Irving scored 17 points in his first game since tearing the ACL in his left knee on March 3, 2025.
Flagg had 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists in 25:07, going 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. He scored 19 in Friday’s 135-117 loss to Houston, when Dallas held Irving out.
The Mavericks made Flagg the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and he was named the 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year on April 29. He turns 20 in December. Irving missed all of Flagg’s rookie season while recovering from the injury.
Kyrie Irving Says Cooper Flagg Has Elite Competitive Nature
Irving has played alongside LeBron James in Cleveland and Kevin Durant in Brooklyn. He would not compare Flagg to either one, because the comparison would get chopped up and spread around.
“I don’t want to go deep into the comparisons, because they’ll chop this up and to be all over somewhere,” Irving said. “Just, I’ll give my respect to KD and Bron, and they’re on their own separate categories and trajectories and careers. But I would say this, I think Coop falls in line in terms of having that competitive nature, very young age, to be able to lead a team, to be able to be on a great team and be a complementary piece, but also lead a team in statistical categories.”
“And I love that he’s a two-way player. I love that he cares about using his voice as he’s grown into year two,” Irving continued. “He’s coming off Rookie of the Year, so it’s a lot of pressure on him, and I feel like I’m here to also alleviate some of that pressure that he feels.”
Irving Wants To ‘Alleviate’ Pressure On Flagg
Irving was the first overall pick in 2011, also by way of Duke, where Flagg played one season before Dallas drafted him. Cleveland missed the playoffs in each of Irving’s first three seasons.
“And I have a few accolades myself that I can, in terms of, I look at for, I can look to for experience. And my first few years in the league were pretty tough on me in terms of losing and not having necessary pieces,” Irving added. “Or even only to say the necessary pieces, even for me, just having the IQ of the game that’s necessary to be able to lead a franchise. So I struggled in certain areas. I needed veteran leadership. We were a young team. I felt like we were good enough to make a few playoff runs, but we just didn’t.”
“So now that I’m in this seat, a little bit older, and I’m seeing this teenager, I won’t call him a kid, even though he plays beyond his years,” Irving detailed. “I think he’s displaying in front of you guys what he’s capable of, and he’s only gonna continue to get better.”
Rockets coach Ime Udoka saw the same thing from the other bench. “Flagg is showing a lot of promise,” Udoka said after the game.
Irving Says Mavericks Want Selfless, Shared Offense
Irving is entering his 16th NBA season and the first under Mavericks coach Dusty May. Dallas is keeping its expectations internal rather than tracking where it is projected from the outside, according to Irving.
“And I think that leads into our expectations, where we can’t really focus on where people are projecting us from the outside, external,” Irving noted. “I think we’re focused on internally of just keeping our expectations close to cuff, just displaying great brand of basketball and focusing on things that we can control, which is our effort and our attitude.”
“But outside of that, we vibe very well. I don’t know if you guys can see it, but our team gets along really well, and we haven’t hit any adversity yet, so I won’t judge us too hard on that,” Irving continued. “But we’re enjoying the process right now. We hang out. We have practices where we’re all communicating, and we look to each other for advice, and guys have a lot to prove on this team, and it’s not just me. So I look forward to being in battle with these guys, and myself and Coop are just two pieces of a great team, and we look at it that way.”
Dallas finished with 28 assists on 41 made field goals Sunday. Flagg led the Mavericks with 7 assists, and Irving had 3. Irving would rather play on a team that overpasses than one where he or Flagg has the ball every trip.
“We have a lot of selfless individuals in there, but also we respect each other’s skill sets, and I’d rather be on a team that kind of overpasses at times and we’re figuring ourselves out, rather than kind of me having the ball in my hands all the time or Cooper having the ball in his hands every time, and it’s just dominated by a few guys,” Irving added. “So we’re just learning off each other. So it’s very early in the season, but I give our guys credit for how we came over to China, got on the flight. China has been a great, hospitable place, and we grew. So that was the goal.”
May said after the game that teammates sometimes stop and watch Irving instead of cutting to open bigger gaps for him. Dallas is still working on its spacing, its relocations, and its schemes for when its full group is together, May added.
The Mavericks host the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday at American Airlines Center, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. CT.
