Schroder’s big night helps stop Mavericks

Observations from the Hawks’ 112-107 victory on Saturday night against Dallas, their second win over the Mavericks this season:

1. The Hawks held on to win on a night when Dennis Schroder carried them offensively: 33 points on 22 shots, including 4 for 8 on three-pointers. Schroder’s three-pointer with 1:21 to go put the Hawks up for good, and he rallied them with 12 points on five shots in the third quarter. Schroder tied career highs for points, field goals (13) and three-pointers made. The Mavericks couldn’t solve his scoring and play-making. Schroder said he wanted to attack Dallas’ bigs when they helped. “(Dirk) Nowitzki is kind of slow now. He’s getting older. So coach told me to be aggressive and if the help comes, just pass it to the corners for open threes and if not just go. In the second half I came out and tried to be aggressive.”

2. Schroder scored 27 points after halftime. After a few of his scores he pointed to the rapper Quavo, who was sitting in the front row. Schroder: “I was texting him yesterday about he (was) coming. He told me to drop 30 points for him. I had to do it. But the special thing is we won the game. I think that’s the reason why everybody is happy now.”

3. Schroder takes a lot of heat for his defense and offensive decision-making. But he’s really good at drawing attention and then setting up his teammates for easy shots. Schroder ranked seventh in the league in assist percentage before the game and Saturday had seven of his team’s 29 assists.

4. After the Hawks won the season opener behind a superlative performance by Schroder, he said he had to “prove a point” against Mavericks rookie point guard Dennis Smith Jr. It looked like he was doing the same tonight while hounding Smith (six points on eight shots). My subjective view is that, lately, Schroder has been better defensively. Maybe I was wrong and that benching was a good idea.

5. John Collins announced himself as a pro in the season opener at Dallas. Just like in that game, the Mavericks had a hard time keeping Collins (13 points on nine shots) away from the rim on screen-rolls and also preventing Schroder from turning the corner. Schroder: “That’s big time. That’s the reason why John is here. He’s a great roller. He’s dangerous when he rolls. They know it. They’ve got to make a decision if they want to let me open or I can throw it to him. It worked out today.”

6. Even after arriving home late following the tough loss at OKC the previous night, the Hawks were able to hold off the Mavericks.

“It felt like 48 minutes of pretty good basketball,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I thought there was 48 minutes of competitiveness, togetherness.”

7. Ersan Ilyasova scored 10 of the first 15 points for the Hawks with a variety of good plays: backdoor cut to the rim, transition layup (a sequence started by his steal), a fast-break threepointer and a nice spin move in the lane for an and1. Ilyasova finished with 21 points on nine shots, seven rebounds (six defensive), two assists, a block, a steal and two turnovers. The Mavs isolated him several times and he held his own defensively.