Cooper Flagg-Nikola Jokic Duel Excites NBA Fans as Anthony Davis, Mavs Beat Nuggets

Nikola Jokić and Cooper Flagg put on a holiday show for NBA fans Tuesday, and Peyton Watson missed his chance to play Grinch to the Dallas Mavericks fans at American Airlines Center.

Jokić found him with a perfect pass in the corner on the game's final play, but his three-pointer rimmed out to clinch Dallas' 131-130 victory over the Denver Nuggets.

Flagg was the star for the winners with 33 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, while Anthony Davis added 31 points and nine boards. Jokić did what he could to counter them with a double-double of 29 points, 14 assists and seven rebounds, but the shot on his potential 15th assist didn't fall.

The Mavericks improved to 12-19 and snapped a two-game losing streak, while the Nuggets fell to 21-8.

Unsurprisingly, it was Flagg and Jokić who generated the most reaction on social media:

Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Max Christie were among the players out for Dallas, while Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun were sidelined for Denver. That put Flagg and Jokić under even more of a spotlight, and the rookie wasted no time impacting the game.

Multiple dunks from Flagg helped the Mavericks jump out to a commanding 14-2 advantage in the opening minutes, and they parlayed that into a 66-56 halftime advantage.

It was a credit to Murray, who exploded for 20 points prior to intermission with red-hot shooting, that the deficit was just 10 considering it was more than 20 at one point in the second quarter. But the early story was Flagg, who looked every bit the part of the franchise cornerstone the Mavericks expect him to be in that opening half.

He drilled all three of his triples, facilitated when the defense collapsed on him and contributed on the boards. Throw in Davis contributing important secondary scoring, and the visitors were in full control for the majority of the first 24 minutes.

For as excellent as Flagg was out of the gates, it was only a matter of time before Jokić countered.

And the three-time MVP did just that when he took over the third quarter with an array of assists in transition and in half-court sets. Dallas was in a pick-your-position situation with the star big man, as he found his shooting stroke from the outside whenever he saw a sliver of space all while unleashing crisp passes whenever extra defenders came his way.

Just like that, it was tied heading into the fourth quarter thanks to the Nuggets' 47-point explosion in the third quarter with Jokić painting an offensive masterpiece.

Even more of the onus fell on the future Hall of Famer in crunch time when Cameron Johnson exited in the fourth quarter with an injury, and the Nuggets fell behind as Davis and Flagg continued to put on a show.

Flagg drilled a triple and used his physicality to score in the lane on back-to-back possessions in the closing stretch to give the Mavericks a five-point lead.

They had to hold on the rest of the way from there, but Watson was unable to take advantage of the wide-open look on the game's final play.