Stepping up to the plate
Austin Rivers shines in Rockets' 129-112 victory over Kings
Aug 10, 2020, 11:22 am
Photo via: Houston Rockets/Facebook
It's easy to forget about Austin Rivers. He comes off the bench, he only really plays about 20 minutes a game when the Rockets are at full health, and he plays in a crowded guard rotation next to James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Eric Gordon. So when he helps carry Houston to a blowout victory over the Sacramento Kings, it can take you by surprise. On Sunday night, Rivers tallied a career-high 41 points on a ridiculous 87.2% true shooting as the Rockets defeated the Kings 129-112.
"He was just aggressive from the beginning of the game," noted James Harden after the game. "I think what got him started was his defense. He played really good defense. And then offensively, he was just attack mode."
As the Rockets got off to a poor first quarter (trailed the Kings 36-23), Austin Rivers was the only constant that was keeping Houston in the game. By halftime, Rivers had 19 points on 7 of 8 shooting from the field and 4 of 5 shooting from three-point range and the Rockets had regained the lead.
"He's been going in the morning to the gym shooting and working on his jumpshot," continued Harden. "So it kind of gave him that confidence. And tonight obviously with no Russ and no Eric, he needed to be a little bit more aggressive and he did that tonight."
The key point here is obviously that Rivers did this on a night where Russell Westbrook and Eric Gordon were not in the rotation. Rivers didn't become good at scoring the basketball overnight, but the combination of Harden, Westbrook, and Gordon take away the need for Rivers to have nights like this. But when one or two of those guys go down with injury, Rivers has historically seen a huge spike in usage and playmaking responsibility. He's thrived in those environments.
"It's not easy, you know?" Rivers said after the game. "You play with two of the best guards in the NBA. Obviously, they have the ball in their hands a lot. So on this team you try to play your role. That's what I do. I try to play my role everyday."
One may see this as a balancing act that the Rockets need to juggle better, but Houston doesn't view it that way. They enjoy the idea of having multiple ball handlers, playmakers, and creators on the floor at all times. It's what makes them unique and gives them the ability to play this way. If one of the guards is struggling or unavailable, they know that they have other capable guys at the ready to come in and fill bigger roles. They don't need Austin Rivers to play like this, and that's perhaps what makes him the team's greatest luxury.
"Obviously it's good," Mike D'Antoni said of his bench's ability to create. "We're pretty deep. Once we get Russell and Eric back, we'll have 9 guys that will rotate in and out. The defense we want to play and the pace we want to play at, we'll need about 9. It's good to know that we can count on those guys."
And it's not just D'Antoni who feels this way. Rockets players certainly appreciate having Rivers' as a weapon in their back pocket. In fact, during the game, James Harden and Russell Westbrook were urging Rivers to keep attacking and take advantage of the opportunity. It's something Rivers says he values deeply.
"That even makes me more confident," Rivers said of the interaction. "Them pushing me really really helps me be more confident in myself. And when you have a guy like James Harden telling you to go, and Russell telling you to go, no one can stop you. That's coming from two of the best players in the NBA. I don't know what else you need."
It's funny - although Rivers has this ability to score 15 points a game if he were called upon to do it, the Rockets really only need him to essentially be a 3-and-D point guard. His one-on-one defense is something Rivers probably doesn't get enough credit for, but his teammates know what he brings to the table on that end of the floor.
"Well we do need him to score when his number's called and he gets opportunities to," said Harden. "Obviously Austin can score but he's a good defender. He just creates opportunity defensively for our team."
And that's what Rivers was for the Rockets on Sunday night. Of course he was scoring the ball well, but his defensive intensity helped Houston sharpen up as a team and led to several minutes with the Kings not scoring. That's the version of Rivers the Rockets will need come playoff time if everyone is healthy: a steady force in the background of Houston's guard rotation that doesn't mind being out of the spotlight. He doesn't need a night like this to prove that he can score the basketball - his teammates already know what he's capable of.
"I don't play for the record books," said Rivers. "I don't play for stats. I play to help my team win. And when you do that and things like that kind of come naturally, it's the best way to go about it. "
It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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