Dave Hardisty

A little disconcerting in that the most efficient scorer on the floor was 19-year-old Cooper Flagg.

Now, on other nights, it might have been Kevin Durant or Alperin Shingun.

They weren't at their best tonight, and there are reasons for that, and we can get into it.

But I'll lead off by saying I thought Cooper was amazing, and it sucks.

As much as we talk about the Spurs getting Wemby in the first half of the 2020s, for the Mavs to get Cooper Flagg in 2025, a guy who could be

generational might be a bit much, but he looks like he's going to be really, really good for a long time.

Immediately after they made one of the worst trades in sports history and the Rockets went through their tanking era, so to speak, and didn't get a prospect, at least on paper, at the level of Wemby or Cooper.

And those are your two in-state divisional rivals.

It stings, and so it's great to get the win, but it is a little bit sobering when you think of the long-term and two of your primary rivals, the other two in-states, having guys that look like Cooper did tonight.

Now, credit to Amin Thompson.

I thought his defense on the decisive possession was really good, but other than that, Cooper cooked the Rockets down the stretch of that game, and it was a weird game in that the Rockets sort of held the Mavs at arm's length for most of it because Houston's role players were better,

But when it got down to winning time, when it got down to the final six minutes and the game became less helter-skelter, more half-court, it was actually the Mavs with 19-year-old Cooper Flagg that had the most consistent offensive creator out there.

And that's why they were able to get back in the game and briefly tie it.

So the Rockets were able to patch things up at the end and improve to 30-17.

So you're certainly not going to complain about it.

I do think the Mavs are a tough matchup.

This season series ends at 2-2.

The two wins the Rockets had in Houston were both ugly, went down to the wire.

The two in Dallas, the Rockets lost.

So I do think that it's a little bit of a rough matchup.