DALLAS, Texas – The solace is that the Toronto Raptors are only the first ones — they won’t be the only ones.

Through the first two games of his NBA career, Cooper Flagg had been fine, if not unspectacular. No 18-year-old rookie can be expected to figure things out instantly. The NBA is too good, the players too talented, the pace too fast — there is too much to learn.

But three games? Turns out that’s plenty of time for a basketball savant like Flagg — the six-foot-nine rookie taken first overall this past June — to crack the code.

The Raptors were unlucky enough to see Flagg put things together against them as he sparked the 0-2 Mavericks to their first win with his first signature performance, of which there will doubtless be many more coming.

The difference was made in the third qu

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