Indiana led by ten at halftime and by as many as 13 on Monday night in Dallas, and none of it survived the second half. Cooper Flagg scored 30 of his 43 points after the break and 16 in the fourth quarter, and the Mavericks walked the Pacers down and out of American Airlines Center with a 125-122 win before 19,065.
The final line is the kind that gets read twice: 43 points on 16-of-25 shooting, eight-for-eight at the free-throw line, 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals in 39 minutes. He did it on the second night of a back-to-back, in a game Dallas trailed for most of the night against a Pacers team that shot 52 percent.
A List of Two
Only one teenager had ever put up the core of this line before. Kevin Durant closed the 2007-08 season with Seattle by posting 42 points, 13 rebounds and six assists, and for 18 years that stood alone as the 40-10-5 game by a player 19 or younger. Flagg's 43, 10 and six now sit beside it, and the three steals take the line somewhere new: no teenager had ever added three steals to a 40-10-5 night.
It was not even his biggest scoring night of the calendar year, which says plenty about where this is heading. The 43 is a season high. His career mark is 51, set last spring against Orlando in the rookie season that ended with Flagg named the league's Rookie of the Year. Monday was his fifth career 40-point game — the most any teenager has managed — and his 14th game of 30 or more before turning 20, second only to LeBron James. He came into the night averaging 24 points. That number is not staying there.
The Third-Quarter Turn
The third quarter is where the game changed hands. Flagg scored 14 in the period — drives, pull-ups, a three, trips to the line — and Dallas, which had beaten Brooklyn by 37 in this building the night before, erased the ten-point halftime deficit and went to the fourth down just three, 93-90.
The Last Two Minutes
Indiana still had to be finished off, and Aaron Nesmith kept refusing. He had already burned Dallas once in the quarter, making three free throws after Flagg fouled him on a three-point attempt, and with 52 seconds left he hit another three to cut the lead to 120-119. Flagg answered with the pull-up jumper he had been hitting all quarter: 123-119, 26 seconds left. Nesmith hit one more three. Kyrie Irving stepped to the line and made both free throws. Nesmith got a final look to tie and missed, P.J. Washington could not put the game away at the line, and it finally ended when Andrew Nembhard's last pass found Caleb Martin's hands with nine-tenths of a second left.
Thirty-Five More
Flagg was not alone, and that is the part the rest of the league should sit with. Kyrie Irving scored 35 points and made seven of his ten three-pointers, completing both ends of a back-to-back for the first time this season, and Dallas outscored Indiana by 29 in his minutes. The two of them combined for 78 of the Mavericks' 125 points on 27-of-43 shooting, and became only the second pair in franchise history to score 35 or more in the same game.
Indiana's night deserved a better ending. Siakam scored 26 of his 29 points in the first half and finished with nine rebounds and eight assists. Nembhard paired 12 points with 12 assists, Nesmith scored 18, and the Pacers shot 52 percent and led by double digits on the road. Rick Carlisle, back in the building where he once coached a championship team, watched his group do almost everything right and still lose by three.
The win was Dallas's third straight and moved the Mavericks to 7-4, completing a sweep of the season series with Indiana. The Pacers fell to 3-8, with a ten-point halftime lead and 122 points to show for a loss.
Next comes the road. Dallas plays at Minnesota on Thursday night (7 p.m. Central), and the Timberwolves have two days with the tape of this game. The scouting report starts with a 19-year-old who scored 30 points in one half. Thursday gets to say how much of that travels.
Sources · 5 sources
- ESPN — Box score, play-by-play and game summary for Indiana Pacers at Dallas Mavericks, November 9, 2026 (event 401909956), read in full and cross-checked against the brief
- Associated Press — Game story — Flagg's 43 points and 10 rebounds, Irving's 35 and the back-to-back note (via ESPN, November 9, 2026)
- Reuters — Game report — Flagg joins Kevin Durant as the second teenager with a 40-10-5 game (via USA Today, November 9, 2026)
- StatMuse — First 40-10-5 game with three steals by a player age 19 or younger (via Yardbarker, November 9, 2026)
- NBA — Official full-game highlights, Pacers at Mavericks, November 9, 2026 (YouTube, oEmbed-verified)
Flagg's 43 points are a season high, not a career high: his career mark is 51, set as a rookie last spring against Orlando.
Every possession from American Airlines Center — the full box score, play-by-play and all 43 of Flagg's points — is in the Game Center for Indiana at Dallas. Flagg's Sunday night is in the weekend NBA roundup, and the NBA hub carries the season.
