Clippers’ Austin Rivers looks to teammate J.J. Redick for shooting tips

Clippers guard Austin Rivers started shadowing J.J. Redick a few months back, and now that is carved into Rivers’ game-day routine.

After every morning shootaround, Rivers and Redick find a basket and start taking turns. They don’t compete, at least out loud, and look to make 10 total shots from a spot on the three-point line. Once they do, they mix in midrange jumpers, floaters and twisting layups. Then they shift to the next spot and do it all again.

“They say shoot with the best if you want to get better,” Rivers said. “And I don’t know many shooters better than J.J. Like there is Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and J.J. as far as pure shooters go.”

Rivers is a streaky player, with a 41.3% career field-goal percentage over five NBA seasons. He is prone to hot stretches, then turns numbingly cold. That led him to Redick, a model of consistency, and Rivers is using Redick’s lessons to try to improve his shot.

In the Clippers’ last 14 games, Rivers is shooting 52.8% (28 for 53) from the three-point line, versus 34.1% over his career.

With Blake Griffin on the shelf for at least a month — he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Tuesday — Rivers’ shooting goes from an added bonus to a potentially important factor in the Clippers’ offense.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers started Paul Pierce in Griffin’s place in a win over Denver on Tuesday, but said that Pierce, Brandon Bass and Austin Rivers would all be options while Griffin is out. The Clippers will need good floor spacing in the absence of Griffin and his 21 points per game, and it would be a good time for Austin Rivers to imitate Redick as best he can.

“Well, it can’t hurt,” Doc Rivers said of his son shooting with Redick.

When Doc Rivers was an NBA guard, he was a lot like Austin: rangy, athletic and more comfortable driving the ball than shooting it.

So Doc worked out with his Atlanta Hawks teammate Randy Wittman in the mid-’80s because Wittman was a much better shooter than him. Rivers watched Wittman’s stroke and tweaked his own accordingly. Doc never shot better than 40% from three-point range in a season, but he knew that a better jumper could greatly elevate his game.

“I eventually became a below-average shooter, you know? Or average shooter at best,” Doc Rivers said, laughing. “But ... I think life imitates art, and if you’re around it every day and you see it every day, eventually it will click.”

Thirty years later, Austin Rivers has found his Wittman in Redick.

Austin Rivers’ game is constantly frenetic — which rarely lends to the balance good shooting requires — and most of his production comes on runs at the rim. But Redick has offered a tip for consistent shooting: Stay in your shot.

Redick always holds his follow-through as the ball sails toward the basket, and is usually firmly balanced on two feet. Rivers has a tendency to drop his hands and start running back on defense before seeing a shot’s result, but is changing that habit.

In the Clippers’ win over the Magic on Dec. 14, Rivers scored a season-high 25 points and made seven of his 10 three-point attempts — and Redick’s advice was illustrated on the first of back-to-back possessions. Rivers shot a jumper, landed on two feet and held his follow-through like a statue as the ball swished through the net. Next he flicked the ball at the rim, bobbed back on defense while it was in the air and watched it clank off the rim.

He hadn’t stayed in his shot and the result showed.

But consistency has to come first.

“Shooting with J.J. has really helped with that,” Rivers said of eliminating cold stretches. “I just need to trust it and shoot it — and everything will be fine.”

jesse.dougherty@latimes.com

Twitter: @dougherty_jesse