Injured Austin Rivers says he’s ‘very lucky’

The news about Austin Rivers’ right ankle just keeps getting better.

The Clippers guard initially feared the ankle was broken when he turned it Saturday during a game against the Houston Rockets, but it was only severely sprained.

Trainers first believed Rivers would miss two weeks, but there was no swelling and the timetable was moved up considerably.

Rivers sat out the Clippers’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night at Staples Center, but he probably won’t have to be out much longer.

Rivers said the team was targeting the game against the Washington Wizards on Dec. 28, meaning Rivers would miss only three games. Rivers said he wanted to return on Christmas against the Lakers but was told not to push it.

“I’m very lucky,” Rivers said, “but right now it’s all about getting strength back. I can really hardly walk on it right now.”

Rivers said he spent about 11/2 hours at the Clippers’ training facility Monday running lightly on an underwater treadmill. He was fortunate he heavily tapes his ankle, he said, because the shoes he was wearing against the Rockets offered little support.

Rivers will switch to mid- to high-tops once he returns.

Though Clippers Coach Doc Rivers lamented not having his son’s length defensively against the Thunder — “I couldn’t think of a worse game for him not to be in,” he said — the Clippers are ideally suited to absorb the loss of a backup point guard because of their ballhandling depth.

Pablo Prigioni was the first point guard off the bench against the Thunder, with Jamal Crawford and Lance Stephenson also assisting with the ballhandling duties behind starter Chris Paul.

“This is why we brought Pablo in,” Doc Rivers said, “because on nights where you have an injury at any position, you could put him in and move Austin and Jamal around, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Pierce out

Clippers veteran forward Paul Pierce did not play against the Thunder because of back discomfort, Rivers said. Rivers said Pierce first started feeling it against San Antonio on Friday but talked his way into playing the next night against the Rockets.

“He actually said, ‘We have no energy and I think I’m going to try to give it a go,’” Rivers said, “and then it really started hurting him. The flights, all that stuff, anything could have triggered it.” Pierce played 15 minutes against the Rockets, scoring three points on one-for-four shooting.

Putting in time

The Clippers will use a stretch of three days off beginning Tuesday to do something they haven’t done since early this month: Practice.

They haven’t had more than one day off between games since the first week of December, forcing Rivers to choose between fresh legs and refresher courses. He’s opted for the former, leading to some slippage.

“We should be further along,” Rivers acknowledged. “Over this stretch, it’s definitely hurt all those guys because we literally haven’t had practice time and we chose not to. We could have had a couple of practices and I chose not to and I knew there may be consequences and it really reared its head” in the games against San Antonio and Houston.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch