Houston Rockets combo guard Austin Rivers, who left the Orlando bubble for a family matter, is back with the team at Disney World.
After what felt like eons, NBA basketball has returned. While the games played so far have only been scrimmages, it is still wonderful to have the games back – even if they are being played with no fans.
The “NBA bubble” in Orlando, Florida is seemingly a success, as players are being tested frequently and much care is being taken to sanitize and clean everything to an extremely fastidious degree.
Of course, since these players all have outside lives, many have been forced to leave their teams to deal with family responsibilities. One such player was Rivers, who had to leave the bubble on Friday due to an “urgent family matter,” but it seems that it has been resolved, as Rivers posted on Instagram that he has already returned to the team, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:
Austin Rivers indicates on his Instagram account that he is back in the bubble. pic.twitter.com/sn1fL3fe2o
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) July 25, 2020
Rivers, an eight-year NBA veteran with four different teams (including a short-lived stint with the Washington Wizards) was averaging 23.4 minutes per game with 8.5 points, 2.4 rebounds (a career-high) and 1.6 assists per night through 60 games with the Rockets before the season was suspended in March.
Seeing as the Rockets are all about small-ball, it’s no surprise that Rivers’ rebounding numbers were up, and he is also asked to spot up and shoot threes fairly frequently.
Rivers was shooting 35.8 percent from downtown during the 2019-20 season on a 53.8 percent three-point attempt rate, which is the second-highest rate in his career behind only last season’s run with the Wizards and Rockets (57.2 percent).
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