Bulls 125, Mavericks 107: Buzelis wins round one vs. Flagg

CHICAGO — While the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers engage in their 213th rivalry game, another rivalry was taking shape at the United Center.

Matas Buzelis and Cooper Flagg faced off for the very first time, as the Chicago Bulls beat the Dallas Mavericks 125-107 moving to 18-20 on the season.

The Mavericks (14-25) are in the midst of a trying season — firing lead executive Nico Harrison after the team’s 3-8 start. The Dallas fanbase will never forgive Harrison for the Luka Doncic trade, especially with noted Packers fan Anthony Davis, who missed Saturday’s game with ligament damage in his left hand, the primary return, now on the trading block.

Still, they lucked into the first overall pick in the 2025 draft, and with it, took Flagg. That’s a good foundation to work with.

“The first thing that stands out is just his competitiveness and how hard he competes and plays,” Billy Donovan said. “I think, like any young player, this skill set will just only get better through a period of time. But he’s obviously coming in with a great foundation, a great base of how hard he plays. He looks like he’s a great worker. I’ve heard nothing but great things about him all the way around. So, you know, I think, like any rookie, you go through these learning curves, and you know, he’s kind of hit his stride, so to speak. But I think he’s got, obviously, a chance to be a special player in the league.”

Flagg struggled shooting the ball against the Bulls, scoring just 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but the polish, IQ and competitiveness shine through less than a month after the rookie turned 19 years old. The Mavs have put the ball in Flagg’s hands and let him learn through experience and failure.

“He’s got to fail,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “To be successful, to be a great, you have to fail. So for him, we have to live with him failing or making a mistake, because he’s one that will understand that he can’t do that again. He picks things up extremely fast. And so to be able to make a mistake, and you talk to him about it, or you ask him that we need you to rebound more, you only have to tell him once, and so again, he’s different than most 18 or 19 year olds.”

Flagg has had an up-and-down start to his rookie year, but he is coming on of late, and the experience of figuring things out on the fly seems to be working for him.

Meanwhile, the Bulls future is very much tied to Buzelis’ development. And it’s interesting to consider the contrast in how the two teams are handling their development. The Bulls are bringing Buzelis along more slowly, preventing him from being overburdened while forcing him to learn by competing for a role in a team that is trying to be more competitive.

“I just think he’s a young player,” Donovan said. “It’s going to go through learning experiences and challenges. It’s going to be different evolution to him as he continues to grow as a player. I’ve said this all along about him, I like the fact that he leans into learning and growing, and he wants to get better and he wants to improve. I don’t think there’s anything you can put in front of him that he’s not going to be able to handle.”

Buzelis has taken on more of an offensive creation workload of late. Perhaps that’s a result of Josh Giddey missing time, but it stands to benefit him to grow as a playmaker.

“I think he’s been very decisive,” Donovan said. “When he’s had the ball, whether it’s shooting it or driving it, or creating something for something that somebody else. I don’t think he’s held the ball as much you know, where he’s tried to manufacture stuff that’s not there. Like anything else, he’s just going to get more and more comfortable. The more minutes he plays in, the more opportunities, and the more minutes he gets in the game. He’s just going to get better. He’s going to get more comfortable with those things.”

Buzelis outplayed Flagg on Saturday, with 15 points on 7-of-17 shooting and six rebounds. He may not have the same upside, but the Bulls need him to be their own version of a number one pick and franchise player. For both of them, their growth, and whether they reach their respective potentials, will be determined by the teams built around them.

But it will be fascinating nonetheless to see the parallels between these two as they evolve in this league.

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Up next: As the Bulls snap their three-game losing streak, they now turn their attention towards the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night for their first look at one of the West’s up-and-comers. After losing to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of last season’s playoffs, the Rockets (22-13) added Kevin Durant to their collection of young players to form one of the most physically imposing teams in the league. 

Despite dropping their last two and three of their last four, the Rockets are second in the NBA in point differential (+8.9), and are fourth in offense and third in defense. They hang their hat on offensive rebounding, where they rank 6th all time in offensive boards per game and first, by far, in offensive rebounding rate. 

This matchup presents a real challenge for the Bulls, who will need to meet the physicality challenge to be able to compete with the size, athleticism and strength Houston imposes. 

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Given that this game conflicted with the Bears divisional round Playoff game against rival Green Bay Packers, the CHGO Bulls crew will livestream a rewatch of this Bulls vs. Mavericks game on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm on our YouTube channel with a live postgame show to follow.