Four-time NBA champion Klay Thompson scored 22 points in his Dallas debut on Thursday, giving Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic a 120-109 NBA victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

Slovenian star Doncic scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Mavs, who fell to the Boston Celtics in last season's NBA Finals and signed Thompson as a free agent in the offseason in hopes of advancing further this season.

Thompson, who won four titles in 13 seasons with the Golden State Warriors, was excited about his first trip to the Mavs.

“Blue is my favorite color,” he told TNT. “And Mav’s blue looks good on me.”

Kyrie Irving scored 15 points for Dallas and the Mavericks harassed the Spurs defensively.

San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama, looking to build on last season's Rookie of the Year campaign, made just five of 18 shots from the field en route to 17 points, and the Spurs committed 19 turnovers led to 17 Mavericks points.

Chris Paul, an 11-time All-Star point guard expected to bring veteran experience to a young San Antonio squad trying to get the Spurs back to the playoffs after a five-year absence, scored all of his points on a single three-pointer. Zeiger, who finished one of six from the field with eight assists.

“You couldn’t ask for a better start,” Thompson said. “Just sharing the flow with (Irving), Luka and the rest of the guys – something really special after a hard month of really good work.”

“But it’s just a small step to where we want to go,” Thompson added.

Coming off a season-opening loss to the New York Knicks, the reigning champion Boston Celtics got off to a slow start against last season's second-worst team, Washington, who led by as many as eight points early on.

The score was tied 51-51 with five minutes left in the second quarter, but Boston closed the first half with a 13-3 run and dominated the second half en route to a 122-102 victory.

Jaylen Brown celebrated his 28th birthday with 27 points and Jayson Tatum added 25 with 11 rebounds for Boston, which had 19 points from Derrick White.

“We just had to carry over the same thing from the first game,” Brown said. “It was our first away game… we started a little slow, but we stayed the course and were able to get the win.”

Jordan Poole led the Wizards' scoring with 26 points – 20 in the first half as he kept Washington in touch early. But the Celtics outscored the Wizards 34-19 in the third quarter and the loss was on.

With the game still underway, Tatum was forced to sit out the entire fourth quarter, while Brown exited with just over eight minutes to play.

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