The Oklahoma City Thunder are no longer unbeaten. Cooper Flagg scored 26 points with eight assists and five rebounds as the Dallas Mavericks beat the Thunder 120-96 in Dallas on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, handing Oklahoma City its first loss of the season and ending one of the most remarkable October runs in recent NBA history. The Thunder first loss came in their fifth game of the campaign, after four straight wins, and it came emphatically: Dallas led by six at half-time, then blew the game open with an 11-0 run early in the third quarter and never looked back.
Flagg, who had struggled against the Thunder as a rookie, announced himself early. He scored 12 first-quarter points and set the tone for a Dallas side that looked sharper, deeper and more settled from the opening tip. Even short-handed, Oklahoma City refused to fold in the first half. The visitors hung close for much of the opening two quarters, cutting a 12-point deficit to just four late in the second quarter, before Dallas took a 65-59 lead into the break.
The game turned, decisively, at the start of the third quarter. Dallas reeled off an 11-0 run to take control for good, a burst that started with Flagg finding Kyrie Irving for a floater and ended with Flagg's own pull-up jumper. From there the Mavericks kept their foot down. Oklahoma City, which had shot better than 51% from the field in the first half, managed just 30% after half-time and only 37 points across the entire second half. Dallas, by contrast, kept finding open looks, finishing with 16 three-pointers to Oklahoma City's five.
Flagg finished with 26 points, eight assists and five rebounds, and remarkably, no turnovers in nearly 33 minutes on the floor. P.J. Washington added 18 points and nine rebounds, and eight Mavericks scored in double figures, including Caleb Martin, who made his season debut after missing the first four games through injury. For Oklahoma City, Ajay Mitchell led the way with 29 points, two days after his career-high 30, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander never found a consistent shooting rhythm, finishing with 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting.
The turnover battle told its own story. The Thunder came into the game averaging 23.3 points off turnovers, but managed just nine points from 11 Dallas turnovers, while the Mavericks turned Oklahoma City's 14 turnovers into 16 points. When the final buzzer sounded, the 24-point margin was the widest sign yet that this Dallas team, so often written off in the early weeks of a season, can beat anybody on a given night.
Oklahoma City arrived in Dallas as the NBA's last unbeaten team and one of its great early-season stories. The defending champions in all but name after a dominant start, the Thunder had won their first four games and carried a 15-game winning streak in the month of October into the contest. They had not lost a game in October since October 29, 2023, almost exactly three years earlier. They were also chasing history: a win would have made them the first team in NBA history to begin three consecutive seasons 5-0.
That context made the defeat sting, but it also explained it, at least in part. Oklahoma City was without three starters for a second consecutive game. Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace are both out with long-term injuries suffered in Sunday's win over the Los Angeles Clippers, Williams with a fractured fibula and dislocated left ankle, Wallace with a torn left shoulder labrum, and both are headed for surgery. Chet Holmgren was also out, and Alex Caruso missed the game too. Against most teams, the Thunder's depth might have covered those absences. Against a Dallas team finding its rhythm, it was not enough.
Dallas, meanwhile, had its own story of patience. Flagg's rookie struggles against this same opponent were well documented, and his fast start on Wednesday felt like a statement in itself: 12 points in the first quarter, control of the game as a playmaker, and not a single turnover in nearly 33 minutes. The Mavericks' eight players in double figures spoke to a balance that good teams need in a long season, and Martin's return from injury only deepened that rotation.
The Thunder first loss was not a fluke of one cold quarter, but it was defined by two very different halves. In the first half, Oklahoma City shot better than 51% and trailed by only six points at the break, 65-59, despite missing four rotation players. In the second half, the same team shot 30% and scored 37 points. That collapse had several causes, and Dallas deserves credit for all of them: tighter close-outs on the perimeter, where Oklahoma City finished just 5 of 32 from three-point range, and a defence that turned 14 Thunder turnovers into 16 points.
The three-point gap was the game's clearest dividing line. Dallas hit 16 threes; Oklahoma City hit five. In a modern NBA game, a difference of 33 points from beyond the arc is almost impossible to overcome, and it reflected the two teams' nights in miniature: Dallas moved the ball, found open shooters, and made them; Oklahoma City, short-handed and increasingly rushed, settled and missed. The Thunder's 23.3 points per game off turnovers, one of the best marks in the league coming in, dried up to just nine, a sign of a team playing without its usual defensive disruptors in Williams, Wallace and Caruso.
For Flagg, the numbers were the cleanest of his young season: 26 points, eight assists, five rebounds, zero turnovers. For Mitchell, 29 points two days after a career-high 30 confirmed his emergence as a genuine scoring option while the stars are out. For Gilgeous-Alexander, 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting was a reminder that even the league's best scorers have nights when the rhythm never arrives, and that this Thunder team, for all its depth, still leans heavily on its MVP candidate when the supporting cast is thinned.
The reporting of the game carried no single defining post-game quote, but the reaction was written in the record books. A four-game winning streak ended. A 15-game October winning streak ended. A bid to become the first team ever to start three consecutive seasons 5-0 ended. Those are the kinds of streaks that do not fall quietly, and the scale of the defeat, 24 points on the road against a conference rival, ensured it would be talked about as a statement result rather than a routine early-season loss.
Within the wider league, the result also reshaped the early-season picture. Oklahoma City falls to 4-1, still among the best records in the West, but no longer perfect, and no longer able to hide behind an unbeaten record while its injured stars recover. Dallas, meanwhile, banked a win that will matter in April as much as it did on Wednesday night: head-to-head results against the conference's best team are tiebreaker currency, and a 24-point win is the loudest kind of deposit.
The injury picture remains the Thunder's dominant concern. Williams and Wallace are facing surgery and long absences, Holmgren's return date is uncertain, and Caruso's absence removed another of the team's most trusted defenders. How long Oklahoma City can stay near the top of the West without them is now the central question of its season, and Wednesday's second-half collapse offered the first worrying answer.
Early-season games are often dismissed as too small a sample to matter, but this one mattered for three reasons. First, it ended the league's last unbeaten start and removed the aura of invincibility that had built around Oklahoma City's opening four wins. Second, it exposed, in the starkest possible terms, how much the Thunder miss their injured players: without Williams, Wallace, Holmgren and Caruso, a team that had looked deep suddenly looked thin, especially on the perimeter, where it shot 5 of 32 from three.
Third, it announced Dallas as a team to take seriously. A 24-point win over the league's best-starting team, driven by a 20-year-old star who controlled the game without turning the ball over once, is not an accident. The Mavericks have now shown they can beat the standard-setters, and with Martin back in the rotation and eight players scoring in double figures, they have the depth to sustain it. If Flagg continues to play with this kind of command, the West's balance of power may be shifting earlier than anyone expected.
Oklahoma City must regroup quickly. The Thunder's next tests will show whether Wednesday's second half was a one-night shooting slump or the first sign of a team stretched too thin by injuries. The returns of Holmgren and Caruso, whenever they come, will help enormously; the longer-term absences of Williams and Wallace will not be solved by any single return, and the team will need Mitchell's scoring, and more nights like his 29 points in Dallas, to stay afloat.
Dallas, meanwhile, will look to build on the win rather than treat it as a peak. The Mavericks' challenge has always been consistency, and the next few games will test whether the ball movement, defensive discipline and bench production seen on Wednesday can become a habit rather than a highlight. For Flagg, the challenge is simpler and harder: do it again, against the next good team, and the one after that.
What was the final score of Mavericks vs Thunder on October 28, 2026? The Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-96 in Dallas.
How many points did Cooper Flagg score against the Thunder? Flagg scored 26 points, with eight assists and five rebounds and no turnovers in nearly 33 minutes.
Was this the Thunder's first loss of the season? Yes. Oklahoma City had won its first four games and fell to 4-1, also ending a 15-game winning streak in October.
Which Thunder players missed the game? Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace, Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso were all out; Williams and Wallace are facing surgery for long-term injuries.
Who led the Thunder in scoring? Ajay Mitchell scored 29 points, two days after his career-high 30, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 on 7-of-19 shooting.
Read more on US News Pulse: Thunder injuries: Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace face surgery after win, Thunder beat Suns 125-114 as Mitchell's career-high 30 keeps OKC perfect at 4-0, and Nikola Jokic's 200th triple-double makes NBA history.
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