Austin Rivers dominates in career night as Rockets romp past Kings

Rockets guard Austin Rivers had driven the Rockets out of their early funk. He thrown down a two-handed slam. Most stunningly, he had gone to his left on drives more times – three – than he does in many months.

So, with the Kings still hanging around, down 16 but scoring enough to think there could be a run if the Rockets eased up as they had to start the game, the Rockets cleared out and let Rivers run the James Harden offense.

Isolated on a wing, Rivers hit De’Aaron Fox with a crossover dribble, faked a drive, flashed another crossover and then nailed a step-back 3. By then, he felt as if he could not be stopped and few would argue.

With Russell Westbrook out, Rivers had done everything on Sunday but bring out flashy fashions, carrying the Rockets out of their early doldrums and then heat-checking his way through the second half until he had a career-high 41 points and the Rockets had romped past the Kings, 129-112.

Rivers put up the most points scored off the Rockets bench since Sleepy Floyd in 1991, making 14 of 20 shots and 6 of 11 3-pointers while collecting six rebounds and four assists.

“Oh man, it’s the best feeling,” Rivers said. “It’s amazing. Last game, I started the game like 0 for 7. You just stay with it. You work hard. Even on off days, you get shots up. You continue to tell yourself, ‘you can do this, you can do this, you can do this’ for nights like this.

“When you get in that zone, there’s nothing better than that. Man, it’s fun. Fun night.”

With Rivers dominating as if back in one of the many high school championship or AAU games he had played on that Disney campus outside his Orlando hometown, the Rockets clinched their third-consecutive Southwest Division title. They have larger goals than that, though it could come in handy in some tiebreakers for seeding even if they have said they are unconcerned with that, too.

More important was getting another key player back in gear.

While Harden was through after 32 minutes, scoring 32 points with eight rebounds and seven assists, Rivers ran through the Kings to more than make up for the absences of Westbrook and Eric Gordon, becoming the fifth player – along with Harden, Westbrook, Gordon and Ben McLemore – to lead the Rockets in scoring this season.

“We’re pretty deep,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Once we get Russell and Eric back, we’ll have 9 guys that’ll probably rotate in and out.

“Obviously tonight is his night. He played great.”

He also got the Rockets going, turning a poor start into the blowout that had been expected.

The Kings already knew they had nothing on the line. As the first half ended, the Trail Blazers finished off the 76ers across the NBA campus, officially eliminating the Kings from playoff contention and extending their playoff drought to 14-consecutive seasons.

After a stunningly slow start in which the Rockets needed nearly eight minutes to reach double figures, the Rockets had recaptured their bubble defense and found their 3-point touch.

The Rockets went from a 13-point deficit at the end of the first quarter to a 22-point lead after three, with Rivers scoring 23 points – one shy of his season high – heading into the fourth quarter. When he kept pouring it on, the Rockets were able to clear the bench for the first time in the seeding games schedule, a dramatic change from how the game began.

The Kings lit up the Rockets in the first quarter, hitting 15 of 23 shots, 5 of 9 on 3s, while the Rockets went 7 of 22 with the starters 2 of 16. The Kings took a 13-point lead into the second quarter before Rivers kick-started the comeback. Rivers ran the offense, knocked down 3s and took the ball to the rim. He scored or set up all 21 Rockets points in a five-minute stretch to end the first quarter and start the second.

The Rockets kept scoring when he went out, and he kept scoring when he returned, with his fourth 3-pointer of the half giving the Rockets a 14-0 run and a five-point lead.

They never looked back until Rivers had taken a game that seemed certain to be quickly forgotten and made it sensational.

“He was just aggressive from the beginning of the game. What got him going was his defense. He played really, really good defense and offensively, he was in attack mode,” Harden said.