Schroder at best against Mavs

Top outings have come when facing German countryman Nowitzki.

Their modest win streak has grown to two games while the magic number for making the playoffs has shrunk to six.

But before the Hawks address those numbers tonight against the sagging Magic in Philips Arena, the perfor- mance of guard Dennis Schroder on Wednesday night merits revisiting.

If there were doubts that playing against Dallas is any different for Schroder, the Hawks’ second-year backup point guard likely put them to rest Wednesday with his 17 points off the bench. That came after he scored a career-high 22 in Dallas in December, too. For the Mavs, Dennis has become a menace.

“Yeah, I think Dennis likes playing Dallas for a couple reasons,” teammate Kyle Korver said after Schroder led Atlanta in scoring in a 104-87 win. “It’s the German thing.”

There’s something special about the big D — Dirk Nowitzki. Schroder’s countryman, easily the most famous German basketball player, was in the house with the Mavs.

Responding to Nowitzki’s presence, Schroder paced Atlanta’s bounce-back from a dreadful 34-22 first-quar-

Hawks

ter hole. He scored eight points in the second quarter while canning 2 of 3 3-pointers and adding two of his four assists and helped the Hawks pull within 53-47 by halftime.

On a 7-of-15 shooting night that included a career-high three 3-pointers made in five attempts, he brought attitude.

“With Dirk, another German player, yeah, I’m competitive, too,” Schroder said. “You want to show other German players that you can play the game at a high level.”

Nowitzki, 36, scored four points and grabbed five rebounds in the Mavs’ fourth game in five nights. Schroder, 21, was a factor in nearly all of his 21:06.

His long ball with 10:06 left in the game, good for an 86-68 lead, highlighted one of his biggest improvements. Opponents look for Schroder chiefly to drive and pass, take the ball all the way to the basket or initiate a pickand-roll.

But he and the Hawks see that, too, so when an opponent backs off, Schroder is shooting more from afar. At 32.1 percent from 3-point territory, he’s not yet a sniper. Yet after making 23.8 percent as a rookie, he’s trending upward.

“Dennis keeps working on his shot, getting better,” Korver said. “He’s so tough when he gets his momentum going to the basket. He’s almost slinky around the hoop.

“A lot of teams have been going under on him and we’ve been talking about that a lot with Jeff (Teague), too. And those guys keep working on knocking down that shot.”

When a German media member asked Korver if he sees a difference in Schroder’s skill set vs. that of Americans, Atlanta’s sharpest shooter suggested that the Hawks’ play under head coach Mike Budenholzer is a style more common in Europe.

So, Schroder fits, even though Nowitzki perhaps would rather not see him on a court in the NBA.

In the offseason? Maybe. They stay in touch, spoke before Wednesday’s game and may join forces this summer in the same uniform in Germany. Schroder is from Braunschweig and Nowitzki is from Wurzburg, just over 200 miles away.

“We’ve talked to (Portland’s) Chris Kaman, too. We all want to play,” he said. “At the end of the season … if we’re healthy, we’ll play, I hope.”