Already short-handed with Blake Griffin out of the lineup, the Los Angeles Clippers will reportedly be without Austin Rivers for between four-to-six weeks as he recovers from a broken hand of his own.
Clippers' Austin Rivers has been diagnosed with broken left hand, sources say. Likely out 4-6 weeks.
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) February 7, 2016
Adding insult to injury, Rivers had been getting better as the season progressed after a rough start to the campaign. In his last 10 starts before getting injured, he was playing almost 20 minutes per game, averaging 7.9 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, shooting 45.5 percent from the floor.
As things started turing around in January, he revealed the biggest change to his game:
“I’m just back to being confident,” Rivers said, via Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. “That doesn’t mean just scoring, it means being comfortable out there playing and having fun. I know what I need to do and I go for it and try to be aggressive.”
Unfortunately, he’s going to have to start over again from scratch after a lengthy recovery that will likely keep him out until mid March.
Until then, the Clippers will need to see some big minutes and production from Pablo Prigioni, who suddenly goes from being a small-time bench player to the primary backup to Chris Paul.