National Basketball Association

Austin Rivers has career night as he finds his touch with Clippers

Published Feb. 22, 2015 1:51 a.m. ET

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It was the Austin Rivers Show for the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.

After missing the previous game with a left foot injury, the coach's son showed no ill effects. Just the opposite.

Rivers had a career-high 28 points --€“ including several dunks -- as the Clippers blew out the Kings, 119-97.

The trade that sent Austin Rivers from New Orleans brought change and history, as he and Clippers coach Doc Rivers became the first father-son duo on the same team. Change seems to be a good thing in Austin Rivers' case.

"It's been big for me. You go to a situation where there's an opportunity," Austin Rivers said. "In professional sports, it's all about opportunity and fit. It's all about the offense. I loved New Orleans, but I didn't fit in as well there as I do here, obviously.

"It's a great situation for me. I just try to play hard and bring energy. Everything naturally comes after that."

The Clippers have won four in a row and are 4-1 without Blake Griffin, who is out for an expected total of 4-6 weeks after Feb. 9 surgery to remove a staph infection in his right elbow.

Griffin got in on the Austin Rivers Show after the game, photobombing Austin's postgame interview. So did J.J. Redick, who was working on pretend jump shots behind him.

It's clear Austin Rivers feels more comfortable on and off the court.

"... You can take a shot and you're not getting yelled (at)," Rivers said. "You just play. That's the way I've played my whole life. It's nice to be back into that where I'm aggressive on both ends. Everything else just kind of comes to you."

The bench has improved, the offense is in a rhythm and the defense is getting stops. Rivers was getting steals --€“ two in the final 26 seconds -- as he twice picked the pocket of David Stockton, son of Hall of Famer John Stockton. David Stockton played in the first game of his NBA career Saturday.

Austin Rivers knows a little something about charting a path in the NBA after a father who has played professionally.

A reporter asked Doc Rivers if he was a proud dad afterward. He had the perfect answer.

"I'm a proud coach," he said. "That's nice. I'm glad he plays well. And he's got his confidence ... You can see it coming. His confidence has grown since he's been here and that's been good for him. The guys have been so supportive because they can see what he can do offensively.

"I'm happy for him because he's got on the team with his defense. He just kind of let his offense come."

As for the dunks, the fans enjoyed those, too. But his teammates didn't give him style points.

"We kind of made fun of him in the locker room," Clippers center Jordan said. " 'You did the same dunk four times!' I told him he needed to do something a little better than that. He told me, 'I just wanted to make sure it went in.' I said, 'At the end, your career-high, you're supposed to at least dunk it backwards or something.

"He sat there and was like, 'Yeah, I should've done something different.' Yeah, you'll get it again, don't worry about it. He had some pretty good dunks. That was good to see."

And good to see Austin Rivers, in his fourth year in the NBA, seemingly finding his way. And it was quite a show.

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