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New Orleans coach Monty Williams said it took considerable time to determine how to motivate and encourage Rivers. “I don’t know if there was a moment where I saw him get it, but three or four weeks ago, he was responding to coaching a lot better, he was responding to making mistakes a lot better — he wasn’t dwelling on his past mistakes,” Williams said. “He’s always competed. But the game started to slow down a little bit for him. Any time you see the ball fall, it gives you confidence, but he never stopped competing and working, and that allowed me to continue to push and push.” Boston Globe

New Orleans Hornets, Monty Williams, Austin Rivers 

“Around Christmas time, it started to change a little bit and I started to think about the things that would help me as a player. You want to hear somebody congratulate you every once in a while and I wasn’t doing that with him as much as I thought I was. “He always competed, but he started playing a lot better. It’s a shame that he got hurt the way he did because he started playing some really good ball. Boston Globe

New Orleans Hornets, Monty Williams, Austin Rivers 

New Orleans Hornets rookie shooting guard Austin Rivers underwent successful surgery to repair the fractured fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand at Manhattan's Beth Israel Hospital. New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets, Injuries, Austin Rivers 

Jimmy Smith: #Hornets guard Austin Rivers will have surgery on broken Right hand next week. Likely done for season. Twitter @JimmySmith504

New Orleans Hornets, Injuries, Austin Rivers 

Roger Mason: Praying for a speedy recovery for my young bro @Austin Rivers. Going to come back stronger and better! #Hornets #Nba #support #pelicans Twitter @MoneyMase

New Orleans Hornets, Roger Mason, Injuries, Austin Rivers 

The Hornets announced that rookie guard Austin Rivers suffered a broken bone in his right hand during a 108-102 home loss to the Lakers on Wednesday. Rivers fractured the fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand and will be sidelined four-to-six weeks with the injury. New Orleans’ final regular season game is on April 17, exactly six weeks from Wednesday, so it’s possible that the injury will end Rivers’ season. Should he return in four weeks, he will miss New Orleans’ next 12 games. SI.com

Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Hornets, Austin Rivers 

Austin Rivers: Do you think aid is still required in Haiti? I do. Click here to find out why. Help us help Haiti. bit.ly/UlLOOJ @AidStillReqd RT Twitter @AustinRivers25

New Orleans Hornets, Haiti, Austin Rivers 

It was actually Boston's normal substitution pattern, and the elder Rivers held true to his word by putting his team's best on-the-ball defender on his son later in the game. But the whole experience left the elder Rivers uneasy while trying to balance his emotions as a coach and father. "It's just a strange dynamic," Rivers said of only the fourth father/son battle in NBA history. "I didn't enjoy it, honestly. I know it's neat for everyone else, but, as a father, I don't know if I enjoyed that." ESPN.com

Boston Celtics, New Orleans Hornets, Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers 

There wasn’t much interaction during the game between father and son, and Doc acknowledged there is a sense of relief that the matchup is done. “You know, it was strange. It was funny, the one time he did something, I was about to say something and I didn’t say it — I caught myself — I forgot he was on the other team,” Doc said. “Other than that, it’s just a strange dynamic. I didn’t enjoy it, honestly. I know it’s neat for everyone else, but as a father, I don’t know if I enjoyed that. George Karl this summer, we were laughing, and he said, ‘It’s going to be strange’ and he said, ‘your [son’s] going to play more [than usual].’ And he was right.” Boston Globe

Boston Celtics, New Orleans Hornets, Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers 

Austin insisted she was rooting for him. “Because she loves me more,” Rivers said with a smile before New Orleans beat Boston, 90-78. “He’s probably right,” Doc said before the game. “I’m not going to argue the fact. I’m even getting trash talk from my brother. I thought he would be on my side. He just texted me and said, ‘Go Hornets.’ I don’t know what that’s all about.” A father coached against his son for only the fourth time in NBA history, and Austin planned to talk a little trash with his dad after the New Orleans victory. “That’s what I’m about to do right now,” Austin said after the game. “I’m going right to his office and say, ‘What’s up?’ ” Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Boston Celtics, New Orleans Hornets, Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers 

Austin knows his father took the loss hard, as he does any defeat. “He’s a competitor,” Austin said, “and that’s where I get a lot of my competitiveness, just being around him. I know he’s obviously down because this is his job and I know part of him is happy I played better and that we won — or not that we won, just that I played better.” Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Boston Celtics, New Orleans Hornets, Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers 

Coach Monty Williams is close with father Doc since their playing days together in San Antonio. But Doc said it’s tough to distract his son from basketball: “Austin is too much basketball, and the reason he’s so up and down is because of that,” Doc said. “It’s a good learning point for him. Austin is the (Tom Thibodeau) of players. He is 100 percent basketball. I talked to him last night, and he’s talking about this game, other games, and I asked, ‘Did you do anything else?’ And he said, ‘I don’t want to do anything else. I just want to be in basketball.’” NBA.com

New Orleans Hornets, Austin Rivers 

Demps says he’s not as concerned about Rivers as maybe some others are because of what he sees from Rivers in practice and in his contributions outside the box score. “He is fighting,” Demps said of Rivers. “I think of Austin as fighting and doing the best he can and working with the coaches. Rookies are going to have their ups and downs. We hope that he can figure out the NBA game and find his niche. What works and what doesn’t work and what can he do to help the team. “The thing I will say about him is that he’s competes. Some nights he’s not making shots, but his dribble penetration is creating shots for other guys. Sometimes he’ll draw three or four guys, he’ll shoot it and misses it, but somebody else was able to grab the weak side rebound, so sometimes the stat sheet doesn’t look as good as his production. The thing is I see him before practice working, after practice working. He hasn’t given up and he’s fighting and he’s trying and it’s his rookie season. HoopsWorld

New Orleans Hornets, Austin Rivers 

Tommy Beer: Austin Rivers confirmed that his Hornet teammates have tried to convince Anthony Davis to shave his unibrow... but it's not gonna happen. Twitter @TommyBeer

New Orleans Hornets, Austin Rivers, Anthony Davis 

Though Rivers is shooting 28.3 percent from the field and averaging 6.1 points after 16 games, Hornets Coach Monty Williams said he has no plans of limiting his minutes. "What I’m not going to do is bury him on the bench because he’s out there trying to do the right thing for the team,’’ Williams said. "I think that would hurt him more than anything. I’m going play him through his mistakes and it’s going to help our program two or three years from now.’’ New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets, Injuries, Austin Rivers 

"Austin is doing a decent job of trying to learn," Hornets coach Monty Williams said earlier in the week. "He's got to do a better job of picking up the NBA concepts. You're going to see flashes at times. You're going to see times where he looks like a college player, but he works hard. He's diligent about film work. He's going to get better because he works at it." SB Nation

New Orleans Hornets, Monty Williams, Austin Rivers 

Royce Webb: What to make of Hornets' lottery? Anthony Davis is the best rookie (26.0 PER); Austin Rivers might be the worst (5.5). Twitter @RoyceWebb

New Orleans Hornets, Austin Rivers, Anthony Davis 

Rookie Darius Miller will start in place of Rivers, who had his left index finger taped on his non-shooting hand during the shootaround. Williams wouldn't elaborate on Rivers' injury other than to say he injured it at practice. "I really don't know the specifics on it yet, but it's nothing too serious," Rivers said. "I don't ever want to sit out a game because this is what I love to do.'' Rivers, who participated in the shootaround, said he thought he was playing but the Hornets made the decision to hold him out. "Whenever they want me back, I will love to play,'' Rivers said. New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets, Injuries, Austin Rivers, Darius Miller 

Williams made the comments when asked about Hornets forward Anthony Davis, who was injured last Friday night when he was hit in the heat with an elbow from teammate Austin Rivers. "The better he feels in the next couple of days, it helps the situation,'' Williams said before Saturday's game at the United Center. "But when you're dealing with the brain, I guess what's happening in football it's impacted everybody. So he got touched up a little bit last night and I'm sure that happens a lot in basketball. It's just that now you treat everybody like they have on white gloves and pink drawers. It's just getting old, but it's just the way the league is now.'' New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets, Monty Williams, Austin Rivers, Anthony Davis, Stu Jackson 

It was teammate Austin Rivers‘ inadvertent elbow that clipped Davis in the side of the head, putting him out of what became an 88-86 loss. But it was the NBA’s precautionary concussions policy that prevented Davis from flying with the team to his hometown — his only scheduled appearance of 2012-13 in Chicago — and will sideline him until he satisfies the requirements of physical testing and a neurological exam. Now, please know that Williams was mindful of the NBA’s fining power when he spoke with reporters before the game. But as he spoke, he revved up a little and he didn’t mince words. “When you’re dealing with the brain, I guess what’s happening in football has affected everybody,” the Hornets coach said. “You treat everybody like they have on white gloves and pink drawers. It’s getting old. But it’s just the way the league is now.” NBA.com

New Orleans Hornets, Ed Davis, Monty Williams, Austin Rivers