Austin Rivers goes from punchline to hero for the Clippers
LOS ANGELES — At the end of the finest performance of his professional career, the NBA’s most ridiculed player reveled in the sweet sound of something he hasn’t heard often the past few years.
Applause.
They stood and roared at Staples Center when Austin Rivers scored seven third-quarter points in two minutes to snuff out Houston’s last rally. They chanted Rivers’ name after he punctuated a brilliant third quarter with a floater in the lane. They saluted him again with the same chant one minute into the fourth quarter when Rivers buried a step-back 3-pointer for his final basket of the game.
Rivers earned every ovation he received Friday night because his one-man scoring barrage turned a single-digit game into a Clippers rout. Eighteen of Rivers’ 25 points came during a six-minute second-half blitz in which the Clippers pulled away for a 124-99 victory that gave them a 2-1 lead over the Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals.
“To be able to show people what I can do is gratifying,” Rivers said. “Everybody progresses at different times. I can look at all-stars who early in their careers they didn’t get to play. You just have to understand that you’ll get an opportunity and you have to take it.”
Rivers has certainly seized his moment so far during a playoff run in which he has transformed himself from punchline to productive. He earned a game ball from team captain Chris Paul after a crucial 16-point performance on the road in Game 4 against San Antonio. His defensive activity against the Rockets in Game 1 was also a huge reason the Clippers stole a game few thought they could win without injured star Chris Paul.
Friday’s onslaught was the most impressive of all from Rivers, a flurry of dynamic drives, confident jump shots and smooth finishes that harkened back to the scoring prowess he displayed during his college days.
TV cameras caught Paul encouraging coach Doc Rivers to enjoy Austin’s performance as a dad and not a coach, but the elder Rivers has trouble thinking that way amid the tension of a playoff game. Even afterward, he insisted he was most pleased about Austin’s outburst because it enabled the Clippers to play Paul only 23 minutes in his return from a hamstring injury suffered during the Spurs series. Paul scored 12 points, dished out 7 assists and attracted plenty of defensive attention, but he lacked the burst to carry the Clippers down the stretch had the game been close.
“Austin’s performance was important because it allowed us to keep CP at limited minutes,” Doc Rivers said. “That was huge for us. The scoring was great and we love it, but the big picture was we allowed CP to get back in this series now, feel comfortable and not overextend himself.”
As much as the elder Rivers tries to downplay it, no playoff storyline is more surprising than his son’s emergence.
A lethal scorer throughout his decorated high school career and in one season at Duke, Rivers was unable to make the transition to point guard the New Orleans Hornets envisioned when they drafted him 10th overall in 2012. He battled injuries, shot a low percentage from the field and committed far too many turnovers in two-plus seasons in the Big Easy before the Hornets finally gave up on him and dealt him to Boston.
Rivers might have spent the rest of the season in the D-League had his father not made an unpopular trade to acquire him. Doc sold it as a move to bolster a bench lacking depth or scoring punch, but to a dubious basketball community, the trade smacked of nepotism.
If failing to meet expectations inspires backlash for any former lottery pick, the criticism only becomes more stinging when your father rescues you from oblivion. The boos became louder and the mockery more frequent in Los Angeles as Austin remained too erratic to stabilize a bench depleted by a series of unsuccessful acquisitions made by Doc during the offseason.
To his credit, the younger Rivers ignored the criticism and looked to his teammates to refuel his waning confidence. Slowly, he has gotten back to the scorer’s mindset he had in high school and college when he’d shake off misses with ease and shoot without hesitation when open.
“There’s no need to put pressure on yourself or be nervous,” Rivers said. “Excuse my language, but that’s all bull s—. Trust your hard work and go have fun. This is basketball. This is what I’ve been doing since I was six years old. That’s what I had to tell myself earlier in my career. Once I came to LA, I’ve just gone out and played and tried to help my team.”
The renewed confidence from Rivers was evident with every foray to the rim and every jumper he attempted Friday night. He even went so far as to mimic James Harden’s trademark stir-the-pot celebration when he buried his final step-back 3-pointer in Jason Terry’s face early in the fourth quarter.
While Rivers surely won’t put up 25 points per game the rest of the playoffs, his emergence as a contributor off the bench only makes the Clippers more dangerous. Throw in some surprisingly effective minutes off the bench from Hawes on Friday night, and suddenly a Clippers team that sometimes only goes six or seven deep may have some threats besides Jamal Crawford and Glen “Big Baby” Davis.
Whether that proves true will be revealed later in the postseason, but on Friday night, the Clippers were simply happy for Rivers.
“Nobody deserves it more than Austin,” Crawford said. “Every day, he’s one of the first ones in the gym and the last ones to leave. He gets a lot of criticism, but if that wasn’t his last name, nobody would say nothing. He played fantastic tonight.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
