VIDEOS: Austin Rivers goes off, mimics Harden's celebration, crowd chants his name

Chris Paul's return from a hamstring injury was supposed to be the story of Friday night's Game 3 between the Clippers and Rockets.

Paul would resume his reign as Point God, and relegate temporary fill-in and occasional punch line Austin Rivers to his rightful place on the bench.

Instead, head coach Doc Rivers' son hijacked the night's proceedings. Austin came off the bench midway through the third quarter, and promptly keyed a 23-0 run that turned a five-point game into a laugher in less than five minutes of game time.

Rivers scored 16 of those 23 points.

By the end of it, the Staples Center crowd was chanting his name.

And finally, just in case it wasn't clear that things had officially crossed over into the realm of the absurd, Rivers busted out James Harden's famous cooking celebration after canning a pull-up three.

Doc, who admitted to feeling like a dad for a moment after his son put forth a similarly impressive display against the San Antonio Spurs in the opening round, tried not to give too much away as he watched from the bench.

Paul came over to let him know that it was okay to take off his coach's hat this time.