Aussies in NBA: Mills brings the hustle and flow against the Clippers

It’s becoming harder to work out where the hustle ends and Patty Mills begins. His no. 8 jersey seemingly signifies the infinite amount of energy he brings to a basketball court.

His spark and spacing was vital for the San Antonio Spurs in defeating the Los Angeles Clippers 115-107.

While Mills finished the game with 8 points (3-of-9 shooting, 2-of-4 on 3-pointers), 2 assists, 2 rebounds and a block (we’ll get to that later) in 24 minutes of play, those stats don’t measure his impact.

Plus/minus does a better job of it, showing Mills posted a +11, which was the highest for any player who played over 10 minutes in the game.

With Gregg Popovich choosing to Hack-a-Jordan for long stretches, it saps the player’s energy and rhythm as the stand around watching Clank City in action (Jordan went 8-of-20 from the line).

Mills’ perpetual motion not only kept him in the action, it was able to re-energize his teammates and help get them get back into the flow of the game.

Today’s defining Mills hustle play was his block on J.J. Redick’s 3-point attempt, only seconds after he had drained his own 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hBzJNR9OuY

Mills was part of a second unit that started the 4th quarter and were able to vault the Spurs into the lead for good, while playing some beautiful basketball along the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_os_R8Y_t8

It took just over 2 minutes for the group to turn a 3 point deficit into a 5 point lead, before Mills was taken out for a well-earned rest.

You can check out the rest of Mills’ highlights below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIPWE4VbVUM