It may be Mother’s Day weekend, but in Los Angeles it felt like Father’s Day. LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers wasn’t universally praised when he added his son Austin Rivers to the loaded Clippers lineup back in January. At the time the Clippers were struggling and Doc thought they needed another tool, especially defensively. He recognized the solution in his own gene pool. Doc explained the first-ever father-son partnership by saying simply “he fits our team.”
Any remaining doubters about the wisdom of that move were silenced by Austin Rivers’ Game 3 performance against the Rockets last night. In 124-99 win that puts the Clippers up 2-1, Rivers scored 25 points, including 15 during a 23-0 third quarter run that put the game out of reach. Rivers’ performance also allowed Doc to limit injured Chris Paul’s minutes. Rivers’ also played excellent defense on James Harden, doing as he promised in January: “defense. Being a physical guard, a bigger guard, just trying to be physical with players. Guarding the one or two spot, even the three depending on who.”
