Rasheed Wallace scored 24 points to lead tour other Pistons to hit in double figures when Detroit won over the Houston Rockets 87-79 Tuesday in the NBA new season in Auburn Hills.

Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady met the defending championship's solid defense in their first regular-season game together with only 25 points.

McGrady missed 12 of 18 shots and got 18 points while Yao scored just seven points on 2-of-9 shooting.

Detroit's entire starting lineup scored at least 10 with Chauncey Billups 17, Richard Hamilton 15, Ben Wallace 15 points and 10 rebounds and Tayshaun Prince 10.

In Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki scored 33 points to help the Mavericks Dallas over the Sacramento Kings 107-98.

Rookie Devin Harris had eight points, six assists and five rebounds. He showed his poise by making a nice pass to Michael Finley for a dunk that made it 103-93, but was replaced by veteran Jason Terry with 58 seconds left after making a potentially costly rookie mistake.

New center Erick Dampier scored 11 points and five rebounds. Finley scored 18 and Harris finished with eight points and seven assists.

Brad Miller led Sacramento with 24 points, and Chris Webber scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

In Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant had 25 points, seven assists and three blocked shots leading the Los Angeles Lakers to beat the Denver Nuggets 89-78.

Chris Mihm added a career-high 23 points and 12 rebounds in their New-look game, which was the Lakers' first in eight years without Shaquille O'Neal on their roster and Rudy Tomjanovich's first as their coach.

Bryant shot just 5-of-14, but made 14 of 15 foul shots. Voshon Lenard scored 13 points for the Nuggets before tearing his left Achilles' tendon with 4:42 left in the third quarter.

Carmelo Anthony scored 20 points for Denver while Kenyon Martin, playing his first game for the Nuggets, had 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists.