Austin Rivers and Doc Rivers have very different takes on facing one another

Published Dec. 6, 2014 7:01 p.m. ET

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Doc Rivers and Austin Rivers meet on the basketball court again tonight.

The Clippers coach and his son, a 22-year-old guard for the Pelicans, will be on opposite sides, and it's a fun exercise -- or not fun -- depending on which Rivers you ask. 

Doc Rivers will enjoy the part where he has dinner out with his family afterward. Spencer Rivers, a walk-on at UC Irvine and youngest of the Rivers children, will be at Saturday's game, as will Rivers' wife, Kris.

"It's not anything I think anyone enjoys doing," Doc Rivers said. "He wants to win, I want to win. It's tough. It's tough for a parent. I never thought it would be. I thought it'd be a lot of fun. In Boston, when we did it the first time, I realized it's not a lot of fun."

Of course, that's all in the eye of the beholder. Austin Rivers quite looks forward to this game.

"I find it fun, not for him (but because) it's a great team, Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan the list goes on," Austin Rivers said Saturday. "It's a playoff championship caliber team, in L.A, bright lights. You can keep going. That's what I look forward to. The whole father-son thing, I already dealt with that my rookie year. Already got that out of my system. I could really care less about that. I'm not going against him. He's a coach. It's not weird for me at all, to be honest with you."

It does put the rest of the family in a predicament. Who to cheer for? Rivers figured his wife would go with cheering on Austin Rivers.

"I'm the outlier in that group," Doc Rivers joked.

When Austin Rivers was drafted with the 10th pick in 2012, after leaving Duke early, he said: "I want to be like my dad, only better."

Doc Rivers still gets a laugh out of that.

"But I just want to make sure I'm winning enough so I can let him not forget that," Doc Rivers said.

This year's option on Austin Rivers' contract wasn't picked up by the Pelicans, so he'll be testing the free-agent market this summer.

Doc said he and his son don't talk about that but rather his performance and their seasons. Austin Rivers is averaging 6.6 points and 2.2 rebounds while garnering more time since guard Eric Gordon's torn labrum injury. The Pelicans are 8-9 and 7 ½ games back in the Western Conference. The Clippers (13-5) are riding a six-game win streak and are three games behind Golden State.

Rivers is proud of what his son has done thus far in his career and "that he keeps growing. What people forget about Austin is he's only 22, and it's his third year in the NBA. He's starting to play a lot better. I think he's going to have a really great career. I'm proud he's stayed grounded through it all."

Asked if they exchanged any trash-talking text messages before Saturday's matchup, Doc Rivers said: "We actually don't do that a lot. If I win, I might say a couple of things. If he wins, he definitely says something."

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