Austin Rivers/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers, NBA.com

Austin Rivers was 0 of 7 from the field in his first two games playing for the Clippers and his father, coach Doc Rivers. He finally made a shot in the third game – a 102-93 victory over the Boston Celtics on Monday at Staples Center.

Still, by shooting 1 of 3 that day, he is just 1 of 10 since joining the Clippers. It stands to reason that the younger Rivers will begin to shoot the ball better. In the meantime, the 6-foot-4 guard will make sure he’s playing the best defense he can play. It will give him more minutes, and it will help his team.

“That’s always helpful,” he said at the morning shootaround ahead of his team’s game Thursday night against the visiting Brooklyn Nets. “Any time you’re playing great defense, it always buys you more … you know, it’s like that thing where if you play no defense and you;’re missing shots, what are you out there for? You know what I mean? I think that’s on any player. If you’re out there playing great defense and you miss a couple of shots, you can deal with it.

“And to be honest, with this team, I think they look at it as, just go out there and play hard regardless. You make shots that night, you make them. You miss them, you miss them..That’s kind of of just the attitude here.”

Rivers, in his third season in the NBA, has a career shooting percentage of 38.7, 32.9 from 3-point range.