Mills Thrills For Undermanned Nets In NBA

Patty Mills has guided the decimated Brooklyn Nets to a memorable 136-133 NBA defeat of Indiana on his return from the basketball wilderness.
Australia's Olympic basketball captain has had his minutes cut significantly this season. Prior to Saturday night (Sunday AEDT) he had averaged only 11 compared to 29 last campaign and had not seen any time on the floor in the Nets' past seven hit-outs.
But with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, compatriot Ben Simmons, Nic Claxton, Joe Harris, Royce O'Neale, Seth Curry and TJ Warren all unavailable in Indianapolis, Mills started for the first time this season and rose to the challenge set by new coach Jacque Vaughn.
The 34-year-old finished with 24 points - the second-most of any Net - to go with his six assists and six rebounds.
The 227 three-pointers Mills hit last campaign were the second-most in a campaign for Brooklyn and he showed his flair from deep again with three shots made.
Most notably, he hit an open look beyond the arc in the final three minutes to extend the Nets' lead to four points and force a Pacers timeout.

Indiana never led again after that point.
Cam Thomas pitched in a career-high 33 points off the bench as Brooklyn (16-12) surged to a sixth win from seven outings and consolidated fourth spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
Vaughn explained a tight turnaround between games had led him to take a conservative approach to his players' fitness.
"When you have two or three guys, rotational guys out, it puts a strain and a stress on two or three more guys and then we're really not in a position of taking care of the team in total," Vaughn said.
"We think, how does it affect everyone else so we can get to a place where, next week we're looking at ourselves in the mirror with pretty good health mentally and physically."
Elsewhere, Josh Giddey's tenth double-double of the season was not enough to secure victory for Oklahoma City, who went down 110-102 to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Giddey was typically busy under the ring, pulling down 13 rebounds - the second-most of any player on the court - and led his teammates for assists (six), while also scoring 17 points.
But Evan Mobley, Caris LaVert and Jarrett Allen combined for pinfaves.com 64 points to ensure the Thunder never led at any point in the game.


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