It began with a tough lefty layup over James Harden and continued with a splashed three-pointer from the right wing. By the time Austin Rivers’ six minute, 33 second stint between the late third and early fourth quarters ended on Friday night, the much-derided Los Angeles Clippers reserve had almost single-handedly won the game for his team.
Rivers scored an incendiary 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting over that stretch, turning Los Angeles’ precarious 79-73 lead into an insurmountable 104-77 advantage. He had help along the way, of course – most notably from J.J. Redick – but it was certainly the 22 year-old’s shocking play that proved most influential to the Clippers’ 124-99 Game 3 victory over the Houston Rockets.
And though Rivers’ underwhelming young career and several playoff gaffes made his performance almost impossible to see coming, his team has kept him believing it eventually always would. With ceaseless encouragement from the likes of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the third-year guard might just yet become something much more than the coach’s son.
Here’s ESPN’s Arash Markazi:
Before every game, after Doc’s message to the team, Blake Griffin will tell Austin that no one can stay in front of him, and Chris Paul will tell him that the team needs him. It’s the kind of comments he has never really heard before from his teammates — and certainly not teammates like them — and has led him to play with the kind of confidence he hasn’t had since he was in college.
Great players inspire greatness in others. And while we mostly ascribe that belief to basketball-related nuances, it extends to the mental aspect of the game, too. Support from players the stature of the Clippers’ superstars can’t be discounted while considering Rivers’ ascent to important playoff piece, just as the talent surrounding him shouldn’t be, either.
Fit matters for all NBA players, but especially those whose limitations are specific and obvious. Rivers will never be the go-to playmaker his draft status suggested, and was barely afforded the playing time to try and become it while with the New Orleans Pelicans. That’s nobody’s fault, either. The Pelicans possessed many handlers superior to Rivers while lacking the perimeter defensive stalwart needed to play alongside him in the backcourt.
But the Clippers’ nature – poor overall depth and a shortage of shot-creation behind Paul and Jamal Crawford – is a much better place for the Duke product’s obvious skills to materialize on the floor. The nurture, then, is simply icing on the cake, and seems to be precisely what’s pushing Rivers to these unexpected heights on the biggest stage.
Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers instills a similar sense of confidence throughout his team in the moments before tip-off of every game, a motivational tactic that especially resonates with his son.
“We’re the best team in the NBA,” he tells his squad. “We know it, but the world doesn’t yet.”
[…]
“My pops always says that,” Austin said. “But I’ve never had that feeling before.”
The younger Rivers obviously shouldn’t have felt that way during his time with the Pelicans. And even as little as three weeks ago, maybe that thinking still would have seemed a bit optimistic.
After the Clippers have dethroned the defending champions and taken a 2-1 lead on the Rockets with a compromised Paul, though, Doc’s sentiment appears more realistic than ever. And Austin’s play, surprisingly, has become one of the many reasons why.
[ESPN] [FreeDawkins]
