SAN ANTONIO — The Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs are set to go head-to-head on Monday night. Before the game, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd explained what makes future Hall of Famer and Spurs veteran point guard Chris Paul such a difficult player to matchup against.
“He competes, he’s always going to be around the ball and he makes winning plays,” Kidd said of Paul. “Just understanding he has a couple young players here that he is mentoring and helping them understand what it means to be a pro. He’s always finding a way to make a big shot or getting his hands on a steal.”
The Mavericks’ injury trouble has been impossible to ignore, but the Spurs have injury concerns of their own. Nevertheless, Paul is still making an impact with the Spurs. The 39-year-old is averaging 8.9 points, 7.9 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals per outing.
The Mavs have a number of young players on the roster. So what can a young guard, such as Max Christie for example, learn from playing against a future Hall of Famer like Chris Paul?
“I think it’s great,” Kidd told reporters. “Chris Paul is a future Hall of Famer so to go against someone like that, to learn from… It’s going to be a good test for him (Christie) tonight.”
The Mavericks and Spurs will play on Monday night at 8:30 PM EST in San Antonio. Dallas enters play with a 32-33 record, while San Antonio is 26-36. As a result, the Mavs are in 10th place and the Spurs are in 13th place in the Western Conference standings.
At the moment, the Mavericks are holding onto the final play-in tournament spot in the West. However, Dallas’ plethora of injuries have significantly impacted the team’s performance over the past few weeks. The Mavs will attempt to end their current five-game losing streak against the Spurs on Monday night.
The post Jason Kidd gets 100% real on Chris Paul before Mavericks-Spurs clash appeared first on ClutchPoints.
