Hoops Habit
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5 Reasons The Los Angeles Clippers Can Win It All

By Gerald Bourguet

May 10, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) reacts after a dunk against Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard (12) in game three of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Staples Center. The Clippers defeated the Rockets 128-95 to take a 3-1 lead. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
May 10, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) reacts after a dunk against Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard (12) in game three of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Staples Center. The Clippers defeated the Rockets 128-95 to take a 3-1 lead. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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May 8, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers guard Austin Rivers (25) controls the ball against the Houston Rockets during the second half in game three of the second round of the NBA Playoffs. at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Austin Rivers‘ Emergence

Speaking of things that need to be explained, it might be time to start taking it easy on the nepotism jokes about Austin Rivers. Yes, it was hilarious when general manager Doc Rivers acquired Rivers in a deal that should’ve made head coach Doc Rivers unhappy. And yes, Rivers represented a drastic downgrade from former Clippers backups like Eric Bledsoe, Darren Collison or even Jordan Farmar.

But as I suggested back when the Clippers first made their deal for young Austin, if anyone could squeeze some use out of him and turn him into a productive NBA player, wouldn’t it be his father? If that 25-point explosion in Game 3 is any indication, the fact that Doc acquired his son simply to help his NBA career might become irrelevant.

Austin Rivers hasn’t always looked great. He was downright terrible in the regular season and in that first round series against the Spurs, he was pretty much a liability. Doc couldn’t afford to keep CP3 off the court for too long simply because of how bad Rivers was against Patty Mills and/or Tony Parker.

But in Game 4 of that series, something clicked. Rivers finished with a productive 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting in the victory, and he absolutely burned Mills and the Spurs off the bench.

Since then, Rivers has somehow morphed into an efficient player. He’s averaging 16.0 points and 1.5 steals per game on 55.8 percent shooting (55.6 percent from downtown) in the first four games of this series. The lowly Clippers bench doesn’t seem so lowly all of a sudden.

So yes, you can laugh all you want at how he completely fell on his face with the game on the line in Game 2 — which, to be fair, was the appropriate response after Kevin Harlan’s epic “HERE COMES AUSTIN RIVERS!” bellow segued to Rivers dribbling the ball behind his back, tripping and losing the ball out of bounds.

But the man finally deserves some credit. The Clippers already have one of the best starting fives in basketball, so if they’re able to shore up their biggest weakness with the second unit…look out.

In this household, a running joke for the last few seasons has been donning Rivers with the facetious nickname of Austin “Stop The Bleeding” Rivers. If this seemingly unsustainable production continues, we may have to stop calling him in jest.

Next: No. 3

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