Los Angeles Clippers: Austin Rivers Injury Damages Struggling Bench
Austin Rivers will miss the rest of the regular season and perhaps some playoff time with a hamstring injury. This will hurt the Los Angeles Clippers and their already struggling bench.
The Los Angeles Clippers announced prior to Saturday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers that Austin Rivers would miss the rest of the regular season with a hamstring injury.
Rivers is in the midst of a career year after a breakout performance in last season's playoffs. The injury could not have come at a worse time, as the Clippers are still battling for home-court advantage.
Furthermore, the absence of Rivers will severely hamper a Clippers' bench that has struggled for most of the season. Rivers has been instrumental in propping up the bench unit on both ends of the floor.
Additionally, he performed admirably as a spot starter during Chris Paul's extended absence. The Clippers will need him to return at full strength to make a deep run in this year's playoffs.
Shooting Growth
Austin Rivers has been arguably the only Clipper reserve to maintain at least some of the magic from their early season hot streak. His net rating of minus-0.1 is not particularly great given that the Clippers sport a 3.7 net rating overall.
However, only Paul Pierce has a better net rating than Rivers among Clippers' reserves (barring an 80.8 Net Rating from Brice Johnson in his seven minutes).
The biggest facet in the leap Rivers has taken this season has been his three-point shooting. Overall, his numbers are up across the board. He is putting up career highs in minutes per game at 27.8, points per game at 12.0, assists per game at 2.8 and rebounds per game at 2.2.
However, he has taken the leap from below-average shooter to a career-best 37.1 percent mark from deep. That, in turn, has boosted his true shooting percentage to 54.5 percent. While that is still slightly below league average, it is a far cry from his career mark of 50.0 percent.
In addition to improving his long-range jump shot, Rivers has also improved his shot selection. Last season, 21.7 percent of Rivers' shots came from eight to 24 feet away from the basket per NBA.com.
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Rivers converted on just 38.4 percent of those looks. He has slightly improved his accuracy on those looks this year, shooting 39.6 percent from that range. However, he has minimized those inefficient looks this year.
Only 14.1 percent of his shots this season have come from between eight and 24 feet. Austin Rivers has become far more efficient on offense this season through this combination of accurate three-point shooting and improved shot selection.
Keeping The Ship Afloat
The Los Angeles Clippers have managed to have a solid year despite extended injury absences from Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. They currently have a 47-31 record and are just a half-game behind the Utah Jazz for fourth place in the Western Conference.
The main motivator of the Clippers' success this year has been the fantastic play of their starting lineup. Although they have only played together in 42 games this season due to injury, the regular starting crew has been lights-out.
That lineup of Griffin, Paul, J.J. Redick, DeAndre Jordan and Luc Mbah a Moute has a net rating of plus-14.0 in 784 minutes per NBA.com.
With the brilliant play from their starting lineup, the Clippers basically just need their bench to stay competitive to win games. Unfortunately, their bench has struggled down the stretch of many games this season, most notably against the Sacramento Kings.
Those issues have been a key concern that may sink them in the postseason.
Playoff Preparation
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The Clippers are essentially locked into a first-round matchup with the Utah Jazz. Since the Clippers have won 18 of their last 20 games against the Jazz, they should be the favorites to win that series.
However, the Clippers will have next to no chance of advancing beyond the first round without Rivers back in the lineup. The team's struggles against the Golden State Warriors are well-documented already.
Their odds against the presumptive title favorites are slim without Rivers, and they would evaporate completely without him there to prop up the bench.
Austin Rivers has been incredibly important in keeping the Los Angeles Clippers' season alive. He performed admirably as an injury sub for Chris Paul. Furthermore, he has helped keep the bench from collapsing for most of the season.
While he might not be needed for their first-round series, he will have to be healthy for Los Angeles to have even a slim chance of advancing beyond that.
