On today's show, Dallas Mavericks get a win against the Brooklyn Nets. Cooper Flagg is already getting the superstar treatment in the NBA. Huge sign of things to come. Today's Lockdowne Havs. This is Cooper Flagg, and you're listening to Lockdown on all the phone. I think that's a good question. All these changes. You know, I still got my dog Dwight Powell. You got a great jobdowneat. You're a daily Dallas Mavericks podcast. It's all right. You're part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. I'm going to get a city like back. And welcome. You're locked on to the Dallas Mavericks. Your team every day. My name is Nick Engstead. Meeting member coming the maps for over 10 years. Thanks for reading every day. Making Lock Time

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What did you see from the Dallas Mavericks tonight's sly biased?

Just, um, yeah, we sent this after the last game.

I was excited to see how Coup respond, responded to what I thought was his worst game, all things considered.

And it was a great response.

I mean, we'll talk about his response.

We'll talk about Nashi Marshall and his fourth quarter. Incredible. We'll talk about Clay Thompson and some of the decisions Jason Kidd made in a game where the Mabbs only had eight healthy players on the roster and three two-way guys that all got some time. So we'll talk about all that. We'll break down all down. Well, let's start here. When last we saw the Dallas Mavericks, they played the Chicago Bulls. I thought they had no energy. I thought they had no fight. I thought they had nothing really good going for them in a game like that. And we were wondering, all right, how is Cooper Flagg going to back this up? How is he going to respond in a game like this? Because the Mavs don't really have a ton to play for record-wise, right? We're already talking about them tanking. They seem to be too far away from the play-in for it to be a real kind of fight for the Mavs to try and get up there. And even if they do, Anthony Davis is not expected to come back anytime soon. Kyrie Irving is not expected to come back at least for another month, at least for another month, if not more so for him. And so there's not really like a life raft insight for this Dallas Mavericks team. But he comes out against the Brooklyn Nets. And yes, it is the Brooklyn Nets, bottom five offensive team, bottom five defensive team, bottom five record team, of course. Are they really still a bottom five defense? Yeah, before the game, I think I had, I had them as, uh, let's see, they were 27th. Yeah, this, this team is kind of crazy because they were, I think they're a second in the entire month of December. 25th offense, 27th defense, according to cleaning the glass. Yeah, they were, I mean, they had a really good, they were seven and four in December. They were actually good in December. So think about how bad they are outside of December. But Cooper flagged, 27 points, five boards, five assists, three steals a block, hits two threes, including the one with 30, with 90 seconds left in the game. That was massive. He's 10 of 17 for the field overall. It's just some awesome mid-range shots that you go, man, those are superstar-type shots. And in the second half, I thought he got superstar treatment from the Brooklyn Nets. Flag going into the halftime had 17 points. It felt like he was sitting on 20 for a little while. And you're just like, all right, when is he going to get going again? When are we going to see Cooper the ball again? But the Nets were doubling him at half court. Anytime he got the ball or brought the ball up, they were giving him a double team treatment,

at least on and off the whole second half. But the Nets were doubling him at half court. Anytime he got the ball or brought the ball up,

they were giving him a double team treatment, at least on and off the whole second half. And I thought that that was just so telling of like, this is the one guy that can hurt us. This is the guy that is hurting us. And for them to treat him like that, I thought it was just so telling of where Cooper Flag is right now, even just right now as a 19 year old NBA.

Yeah, I mean, I think some of it was probably the Nets looking at the Mab situation and realizing,

you know, if any of these other guys beat us, so be it. But also I think some of it was

Jordi Fernandez, who we get to see him coach a competent Nets roster, really. But I do think he has some psycho streak in him. And I think some of that was like, hey, we're probably going to lose this game anyway. Like, let's blitz this Ricky and see if we can just make his life a nightmare for the next 24 minutes. And the fact that the- Do you think he really looked at this team that starts Dwight Powell and Jaden Hardin was like, I don't think we can win this game? I think he probably felt the flow of the game. It was like, we're not winning this game. Maybe in the middle of the game, yeah. But I think from jump, I think they'd think that they would have a chance for sure. But yeah, the Mavs... Their highest lead was 14. it's not like they were dominating this whole game, but they did hold the lead for pretty much all the game. Yeah. And I mean, uh, Cooper's doing a good job getting downhill. So maybe they just wanted to cut that off. But yeah, he did a fantastic job playing off those double teams and you don't need to do too much. You don't need to throw. And he did have a couple of, uh, nice skip passes. You know, There was one I can think of. Yeah. I think it was either early in the third quarter or late in the second quarter where he gets doubled. And he just patiently waits enough time. You know, that's one thing I've, I've been impressed with when Coop does get doubled. Is he's good at, you know, these retreat dribbles and stuff to keep his dribble alive and just buy a couple more seconds. It's kind of like a quarter of, you know, NFL playoffs, like a quarterback like moving up in the pocket or something like just giving himself a tiny bit more time to get these passing angles. And it was a skip to Jaden Hardy who didn't miss a three, but there's a wide open three. So, I mean, those are the plays that you like to see. Yeah, I mean, no turnovers. And he was double team pretty much the entire second half. Like, that's really encouraging. That and, man, that shot at 107 left in the second quarter, just that whole sequence where a double comes over to him and he tries to split the two defenders and jump between him and take a shot. He tries to foul bait.

Doesn't get the foul.

Hits the jumper anyway.

Down on the other end and he gets screened and then leaves his man on purpose and then goes over a huge help block against Terrence man.

Just an absolute two-way monster sequence where you look at that guy and you go, yeah, that's the future. Him hitting crazy shots, getting double team, hitting shots, making the right pass. On the other end, big defensive plays too. Yeah. And I think, you know, tonight, honestly, I don't think it was one of his better defensive games. But I do think some of it, his defensive stuff, is like, I think he's got to realize, and he will realize this in time.

Obviously, his great help instincts, he's a good athlete, he's got great size.

So him being this just roaming free safety, something that I definitely think is in his future.

But I do think sometimes he kind of gambles and overhelps a little bit in an effort to make these plays where it's like, yeah, in college, right, when these guys are a little bit less skilled, you can recover easier or stuff like that.

Right. Less space. The NBA, you know, these guys will punish a little bit. I think that's something he'll learn over time. But yeah, I mean, that play right there just showcases the, you know, when he's able to help off and all you got to do, it's like the LeBron thing in transition where it's like just if you're defending a guy in transition, just give me, just stay in front long enough for me to get into the play. And I will erase anything. That's, I mean, that that that's so true of him that you're we're going to wait for those moments

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