Welp, that didn’t last long.
Less than a week removed from NBA Hallwaygate 2018, the beef festering between the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets appears to be quashed. Or rather, at the very least, whatever tensions exist between Trevor Ariza and Austin Rivers are a thing of the past.
Both Ariza and Gerald Green were suspended by the league after they, along with Chris Paul and James Harden, used a secret(ish) hallway to enter the Clippers’ Staples Center locker room following the Rockets’ Monday night loss. Their goal: to confront Griffin and Rivers, the latter of which led an all-out celebration-fest from Los Angeles’ bench all night.
But that’s all ancient history now—again, at least as far as Ariza and Rivers’ relationship goes. The two had a phone conversation in the aftermath of all the hoopla and are now on good terms, according to ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne:
LA Clippers guard Austin Rivers said he and Houston Rockets swingman Trevor Ariza spoke for 35 minutes this week to hash out their differences after Monday’s heated confrontations on the court and later in the Clippers’ locker room.
“First and foremost, me and Trevor have no problems,” Rivers told ESPN in a lengthy interview after the Clippers’ win over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night. “He called me. He reached out to me. Trevor and I talked and hashed everything out. He was really cool about being the bigger guy and calling me.”
If we’re being honest—and, quite frankly, hopeful—the Clippers and Rockets overall are far from done with another. Griffin exchanged words with Houston’s head coach, Mike D’Antoni, and Paul, his former teammate. The edge from that game doesn’t just go away.
Irrespective of what the players might say now, they’ll be playing with a little extra oomph on Feb. 28, when they meet again at Staples Center. Don’t believe me? Consider Paul’s postgame comments from Monday night: He essentially brushed off the entire episode—which, by the way, included ejections for Ariza and Griffin near the end of the fourth quarter. And yet, after Paul expressed something verging on indifference, he proceeded to head into the Clippers’ locker room. Whether he was there as a peacemaker or haymaker doesn’t matter. This rivalry is far from dead.
Things between Austin Rivers and Trevor Ariza, though? Yeah, those are perfectly fine…for now.
