The matchup of the game when the Dallas Mavericks visit the AT&T Center to rekindle their rivalry with the San Antonio Spurs will be between Cory Joseph and Darren Collison.
This will be Cory Joseph's first game against the Dallas Mavericks this season and the Spurs will need him to contain Darren Collison to have a good shot at winning this game. The Mavericks have been underacheiving as a team, but they've gotten decent numbers from a handful of players including Collison. Darren's been averaging 12.2ppg with 5.4apg this season and he'll look to exceeed his averages this game. Joseph has been playing good defense as the replacement for Tony Parker, although the stats may not tell the whole story with great performances by top point guards he's had to face.
What Joseph must do on offense:
He has to stay active on the offensive end. He's shown he can drive easily against opponent's when there's some daylight given by the defense. His driving will help his shooters get open shots, especially if the big men have to help against him. He can't do this consisntly the whole game, but he needs to give the Spurs' offense different looks when he's in the game. He's also been shooting well at 54% FG (40% 3FG) this season with San Antonio. If Joseph can knock down shots, it'll open up his drives and the Spurs will be tough to beat.
What Joseph must do on defense:
He has to keep Collison out of the restricted area where he's shooting 60% (127-211). While Collison is one of the quicker point guards in the league, Joseph has shown he can keep up with the fastest guards and also contest well on defense with his longer arms. If Joseph can run Collison from the mid range area and keep him in the paint that's not the restricted area, the Spurs defense should be a great help for him. Collison is shooting just 34% (27-79) from that area and hasn't thrown up a lot of shots from there, so you can guess that Collison has trouble making decisions in that part of the court.
