With thumb healed, Austin Rivers catching fire from 3-point range

After missing multiple games with a thumb sprain, Austin Rivers has returned to the Rockets as nearly a 43% shooter from 3-point range.

After missing multiple games in mid-January with a sprained thumb on his right shooting hand, 27-year-old reserve guard Austin Rivers has returned to the Rockets as a revitalized shooter.

In 14 games since his Jan. 22 return from injury, Rivers is scoring 10.4 points in 25.2 minutes per game, and he’s shooting 42.9% on 3-pointers. The 6-foot-4 guard has made at least two shots from 3-point range in 10 of those 14 games, and at least three 3-pointers in four of them.

By contrast, in the 17 games prior to his injury absence, Rivers averaged 6.7 points in 20.4 minutes per game on 25.5% 3-point shooting.

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For the 2019-20 season overall, Rivers is up to 34.1% on 3-pointers. Before his absence, he was shooting just 30.3% on the season.

Rivers’ surge and return to health comes at a great time for both the Rockets (36-20), who have now won seven of nine games, and for him personally. With the recent additions of veteran forwards Jeff Green and DeMarre Carroll and the return of guard Eric Gordon, rotation minutes are no longer a given for the likes of Rivers and Ben McLemore.

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But with Rivers and McLemore each shooting well above 40% on 3-pointers for more than a month on the NBA’s most aggressive team from 3-point range, it’s hard for them to lose playing time.

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In Saturday’s big win at Utah, it was a pair of veterans in Carroll and Thabo Sefolosha who didn’t play, with head coach Mike D’Antoni sticking to a nine-man rotation. Rivers played 17 minutes and scored 6 points, appropriately on 2-of-3 shooting (66.7%) from behind the 3-point arc.

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It’s not that shooting is his only reason playing time. Rivers is a very useful secondary ballhandler off the bench, and his on-ball defense and ability to move laterally while staying in front of quicker guards is important. In short, he’s one of D’Antoni’s best options to slow dribble penetration.

Nonetheless, on a suddenly deep team, those traits might not always be enough for consistent playing time if he’s shooting 30% or worse from 3-point range. But if you combine those attributes with better than 40% shooting from long range? That’s a very different story.

It certainly helps explain why Rivers has seen his playing time increase from approximately 20 per game as of mid-January to more than 25 per game over the past month. And as long as he continues to shoot this well, it’s hard to see his role changing, even with a deeper supporting cast.

Rivers and the Rockets will look to keep the momentum rolling when they host the New York Knicks (17-39) on Monday night at Toyota Center, with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Central time.

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