SEASON OPENER: HAWKS 99, MAGIC 85: All of a sudden, winter seems intriguing

Orlando —- Remember Josh Childress? Now a Grecian earner? Maybe he wasn’t as indispensable as we thought.

Remember the bench? The one ESPN.com called “a FEMA disaster zone”? Maybe it’s not so crummy.

Remember the Hawks? Remember them taking Boston to a Game 7? Maybe that wasn’t just a spring fling.

Game 1 of the new season saw them pick up when they left off, and not in the blowout Game 7 but in those three rousing postseason victories at Philips Arena. The Hawks opened against the defending NBA Southeast champions and waxed the parquet floor with them.

“We know we can play at this level consistently,” said Josh Smith, terrific in his first real game after landing that $58 million contract. “There’s a different vibe in the locker room. Being a year better helps. It helps as far as our maturity, and it helps as far as knowing we can win on the road.”

The Hawks led the Magic by 15 points after 10 1/2 minutes, by 18 in the second quarter, by 19 after three. The home side had begun the evening with the usual elaborate introductions, which ended with the famous Atlantan Dwight Howard telling the crowd: “We want to bring a championship back to Orlando.”

Then Howard went out and missed his first shot against Al Horford, and his second was blocked by Smith, his former AAU teammate who has known Howard since the two were in preschool. Said Horford: “We got after it defensively.”

Said Stan Van Gundy, the dazzled Magic coach: “We already know the Hawks are quick and athletic, but they got after it tonight. They played way too hard for us.”

And here was the best part: A flying start wasn’t squandered for lack of reinforcements. Even with a short bench —- with Marvin Williams serving his one-game suspension for decking Rajon Rondo in Game 7, Maurice Evans was bumped up —- these much-lampooned reserves stuck a harpoon in the Magic.

“I feel very comfortable with our bench now,” Mike Woodson said. “Having Mo [Evans] and Flip [Murray] is huge because they’re veteran guys who’ve played in other systems, and Zaza [Pachulia] is playing like he did when we first got him.”

This is the Zaza Pachulia who drifted through the last regular season but roused himself to stare down Kevin Garnett in the playoffs. Even on a night when Joe Johnson did his usual starring bit, and Murray scored 14 points in his debut as a Hawk, the talk of the locker room was Zaza from (the other) Georgia.

Said Smith: “Zaza played big as hell.”

Said the Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, shaking Pachulia’s hand: “That’s the way to come to work, big fella.”

Pachulia had eight points and eight rebounds in 11 1/2 minutes, and his presence helped force the splendid to work overly hard for his 22 and 15. Asked if the rush from the Boston series had indeed transformed him, Zaza said, “Yes, it did. That was a big experience for me. It was my first time in the playoffs, and we were playing a great team —- the future world champions. I learned a lot of things from that. I have a better idea what it takes.”

What it takes to win at a high level in the NBA is exactly what the Hawks supplied Wednesday night. They were forceful and measured, poised and precise. They didn’t look like a team that peaked the first week of May. They looked like a team capable of scaling higher and higher mountains. They looked as if they’re bent on making this winter as intriguing as they made the spring.

mbradley@ajc.com