The Atlanta Hawks extended their winning streak to six-straight games Saturday night with a 97-82 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Atlanta outscored Dallas 52-40 in the second half and pulled away late thanks to big performances from Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dennis Schröder.
Both teams got off to a cold start offensively but they started to wake up late in the first quarter. Atlanta led 22-20 at the end of one but trailed by as many as eight points in the second quarter before rallying to finish with a 45-42 lead at halftime.
The Hawks began the third quarter well behind a solid offensive performance by Schröder but Atlanta was unable to put the Mavericks away. However, a 10-0 run in the fourth was more than Dallas could overcome as the Hawks shot 60 percent in the frame.
Hardaway continued his string of solid performances to start the new year with a game-high 22 points including five made three-pointers. Schröder followed close behind with 20 points while Paul Millsap chipped in 17.
Dwight Howard had a big game as well with 15 points and a game-high 20 rebounds. Howard knocked down 7 of 9 free throw attempts in the game and was 4 of 6 when the Mavericks deployed the Hack-a-Howard strategy in the fourth quarter.
Harrison Barnes led the Mavericks with 21 points.
Atlanta still hasn’t lost in the new year and equals their longest winning streak of the season. The Hawks will look to make it a clean sweep of their current four-game road trip on Tuesday when they travel to Brooklyn to face the Nets.