Hawks, Schroder spoil Smith's debut, top Mavericks 117-111

 Dennis Schroder scored 28 points in his first game as the front man for Atlanta and the rebuilding Hawks spoiled rookie Dennis Smith Jr.'s solid Dallas debut, beating the Mavericks 117-111 in the opener Wednesday night.

Marco Belinelli, a familiar face for the Mavericks as a former rival with San Antonio, added 20 points and was 4 of 6 from 3-point range to help the Hawks in their first game after letting Paul Millsap leave in free agency and dumping Dwight Howard.

Smith scored his first NBA points on an alley-oop dunk to open the Dallas scoring and finished with 16 points and a game-high 10 assists.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting and the 39-year-old German joined Kobe Bryant (Lakers) as the only players to reach 20 seasons with the same franchise. He was on the bench in the back-and-forth closing minutes.

Dewayne Dedmon followed a miss by Schroder for a layup to put Atlanta up 113-111 with 58 seconds left. Taurean Prince rebounded a missed 3 from Belinelli with the shot clock off and made both free throws for a four-point lead.

Schroder, Nowitzki's German countryman, was 13 of 26 from the field and led the Hawks with seven assists. All but three of his shots were inside the 3-point line.

The 19-year-old Smith, the ninth overall pick and Dallas' most important draft choice since Nowitzki 19 years ago, wasn't the only first-round rookie to play well. Atlanta's John Collins, the 19th pick, scored 14 points.

Nerlens Noel matched Smith with 16 points, his most since coming to Dallas at the trading deadline last season, and had 11 rebounds. Wesley Matthews scored all of his 15 points in the second half.

TIP-INS

Hawks: Prince had 10 points and 10 rebounds as the Hawks outrebounded the Mavericks 50-41. ... Schroder capped a 12-0 run late in the first half with a layup for a 56-45 lead, and the Hawks led by that margin at halftime.

Mavericks: G Seth Curry, Golden State star Stephen Curry's younger brother, missed the opener with a stress fracture in his lower left leg. He's out indefinitely. ... Smith asked out of the game and limped through the tunnel in the second quarter after landing awkwardly on his left leg when he was fouled on a dunk. He returned later in the quarter.

UP NEXT

Hawks: At Charlotte on Friday night.

Mavericks: Sacramento at home Friday night in a "20-20" matchup: Vince Carter, Nowitzki's former teammate, is also in his 20th season.

Millsap has 21, Hawks take 113-86 runaway win over Magic

This time, no dramatic comeback was needed for Tim Hardaway Jr. and the Atlanta Hawks - thanks to hot shooting in the opening period.

Paul Millsap scored 21 points, all in the first three quarters, Hardaway also had 21, and the Hawks never trailed in their 113-86 runaway win over the Orlando Magic on Saturday night.

Hardaway continued to make the most of his chance to start as Thabo Sefolosha missed his fourth straight game with a groin injury. Hardaway had 33 points, including 23 in the fourth quarter, when Atlanta rallied after trailing by 20 points with less than nine minutes remaining to beat Houston 113-108 on Thursday.

The Hawks took momentum from the win at Houston into Saturday night's game.

"The energy was great," said Atlanta's Kent Bazemore. "Coming off an emotional win like that, it's tough to find the emotions again, but we were able to do that."

Atlanta made 13 of its first 16 shots from the field, quickly stretching its lead to double figures. The Hawks couldn't keep up that pace, but they made 27 of 41 shots (65.9 percent) for a 65-39 halftime lead. They shot 52.6 percent for the game.

Orlando coach Frank Vogel called his team's effort on defense "terrible."

"It's disappointing. It's just disappointing," Vogel said. "There's no other word for it."

Atlanta took a 39-29 lead on a jam by Dwight Howard early in the second period and kept the advantage in double figures the remainder of the game.

"They were in a rhythm," said Orlando's Aaron Gordon, who had 16 points. "We had a good game plan and we didn't execute it defensively as a whole."

Millsap, Howard and Dennis Schroder sat out the fourth quarter. Schroder had 17 points and 10 assists.

The Hawks (30-21) have won three of four and 15 of 20 to move to a season-high nine games over .500.

TIP-INS

Magic: Elfrid Payton had 10 to join Gordon as Orlando's only two starters to score in double figures. ... The Magic fell to 11-17 in road games. ... Jeff Green had 12 points off the bench. ... Starting guards Evan Fournier and Payton combined to make only 6 of 24 shots. The two were a combined 0-for-7 on 3-point attempts. ... The Magic made only 27 of 78 shots (35.1 percent).

Hawks: Howard had 11 points and 13 rebounds for his 33rd double-double of the season. ... F Taurean Prince was recalled from the Long Island Nets of the NBA Development League, one day after he was fined $25,000 for his role in a scuffle during Wednesday's game in Miami. He was ejected from the game. Asked about the fine on Saturday, coach Mike Budenholzer said he believes the league takes "the safety of our players, the spirits of the game, seriously and I'm just going to be respectful of their decision."

SUPER BOWL SPIRIT

Super Bowl fever in Atlanta may have hurt the turnout, but the Falcons' influence was felt. One fan sitting near the floor held up a Falcons' "Rise Up" banner after Howard predicted a Falcons win over the Patriots in a recorded segment shown on the video board.

Falcons fans cheered and chanted "MVP! MVP!" after quarterback Matt Ryan's selection as the AP NFL Most Valuable Player award was announced to the crowd late in the game.

NO WINNING STREAK IN `17

Orlando, which beat Toronto on Friday night, hasn't won back-to-back games since Dec. 23 and 26 against the Lakers and Memphis.

"Apparently we're not good enough for that - on either end of the floor," Vogel said.

7 PASSES ARE PERFECT

A possession that included seven passes ended with Hardaway's buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the corner for a 76-50 lead midway through the third period.

Hardaway described the play as "Hawks basketball at its finest."

"If we play like that, we not only make ourselves happy, we make our coach happy," he said.

UP NEXT

Magic: Visit Houston on Tuesday night.

Hawks: Host Utah on Monday night.

Howard, Millsap, Hardaway lead Hawks past Wizards 114-99

 Dwight Howard was everything the Hawks were hoping for in his hometown debut.

Tim Hardaway Jr. in a starring role?

That was a major surprise.

Hardaway scored 21 points and ignited a fourth-quarter outburst that carried new-look Atlanta to a 114-99 victory over the Washington Wizards in the season opener Thursday night.

Howard, who returned to the city where he grew up in the Hawks' biggest offseason move, did nothing to disappoint. He grabbed 19 rebounds - more than anyone had for Atlanta all of last season - and was a huge presence at the defensive end, disrupting shots and giving his teammates the freedom to be more aggressive on the perimeter.

"The worst thing you can do is lay an egg in the first game," said Howard, who also had 11 points and three blocks. "I think all of us were a little nervous in the first half because we want to do so well. We really want put on for this city. ... Once we kind of settled in, kind of got our feet wet, we took it to another level."

Paul Millsap, for one, didn't have to spend so much time banging on the boards. He took advantage at the offensive end, leading the Hawks with 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting.

But Hardaway was the one who really came up big, which was totally unexpected given that he was largely confined to the bench and even spent time in the D-League during his first season with the Hawks.

"It's definitely a new page, a new start," Hardaway said. "But (last season) will always be the intro to me in Atlanta. That will always be in the back of my head, how they pushed me, how they got me prepared to get to this point in my career."

Hardaway scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, including back-to-back 3-pointers that helped Atlanta pull away, and wound up matching his best showing in a Hawks uniform. Thabo Sefolosha was another key contributor off the bench, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the third quarter.

The Hawks, who led only 81-80 heading to the final period, outscored the Wizards 33-19 over the final 12 minutes.

Markieff Morris led Washington with 22 points, but it was a tough night for the Wizards' dynamic backcourt duo. John Wall finished with only 12 points on 3-of-15 shooting, while Bradley Beal was held to 13 in the debut for new Washington coach Scott Brooks.

"We got a lot of good looks. Some went down, some didn't," Beal said. "But at the end of the day, we can't control our offense. We can control our defense and our effort. We just gave up the last quarter and a half."

TIP INS

Wizards: Marcin Gortat had 11 rebounds but didn't have much help. Washington was outrebounded 52-40. ...Otto Porter was the only other Washington player in double figures with 10 points. ... The Wizards locked arms during the national anthem.

Hawks: Howard posted the most rebounds for anyone in their Atlanta debut, breaking the mark of 18 that Shareef Abdur-Rahim set at Houston on Oct. 30, 2001. ... Dennis Schroder, taking over as the starting point guard after the trade of Jeff Teague, had 14 points but only two assists.

BROOKS RETURNS

After deciding not to pursue a coaching job last season, Brooks was back on an NBA sideline with the Wizards.

He spent six-plus seasons guiding the Oklahoma City Thunder before he was fired in 2015 after the team failed to make the playoffs.

TEMPERS FLARE

Atlanta's Kent Bazemore was called for a flagrant foul early in the third quarter when he got underneath Wall as the Washington star went in for a breakaway dunk, sending him tumbling to the court.

Wall hopped up, looking to go after Bazemore, but several players stepped in before something more serious could develop.

Bazemore said he didn't mean to make contact with Wall.

"I don't play the game that way," Bazemore said. "It was just an unfortunate play. We hugged and made up after that."

UP NEXT

Wizards: Play at Memphis on Sunday, facing a Grizzlies team that began the season with a 102-98 victory over Minnesota.

Hawks: Travel to Philadelphia on Saturday to take on the 76ers, who went 10-72 last season and opened with a loss to Oklahoma City.