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Patty Mills rips apart Kings during NBL season opener

October 07, 2011 11:52PM

Trailblazer: Patty Mills of the Tigers drives past Aaron Bruce of the Kings during the round one NBL match between the Melbourne Tigers and the Sydney Kings. Source: The Daily Telegraph

THE Sydney Kings got a glimpse of what they missed out on with NBA player Patrick Mills leading the Melbourne Tigers to a 82-76 NBL win at home last night.

Just hours after learning NBA star Andrew Bogut would not be joining the club, the Kings fought hard but were run down by the pocket rocket from the Portland Trail Blazers .

Mills and Tigers teammate Ayinde Ubaka shared 50 points and drove an amazing come-from-behind win for the Tigers, wiping out a 14-point third-quarter deficit to top the Kings.

The Tigers only held the lead for 1 min 20 sec of the entire game, but it was the last 62 seconds that proved decisive as Ubaka (22 points, 7-11 FG) gave Melbourne their first lead since early in the second period, nailing a big three to go ahead 77-74.

Mills (28 points, 6-11 3pt FG) iced it with two trips to the free-throw line.

Fighting an illness, Mills knew he had to get aggressive down the stretch and helped the Tigers go on a 29-10 run over the last 6 min 49 sec in front of a packed house.

Although they finished on the bottom last season, there was no way to underestimate the Kings this year as they took an improved line-up to The Cage and immediately took the initiative as big men Julian Khazzouh (18 points, 14 rebounds) and Jerai Grant (16 points, 6-9 FG) dominated.

Kings coach Ian Robilliard lamented some poor defence in the final quarter.

"They shot the ball exceptionally well in the last quarter and we had some costly turnovers," Robilliard said after the encounter.

"We'd done a good job until then. It was disappointing but there were a lot of positives for the club.

"We weren't as good defensively down the stretch."

Melbourne 82 (P Mills 28, A Ubaka 22, C Tragardh 14) Sydney 76 (J Khazzouh 18, J Grant 16, A Bruce 9) at State Netball and Hockey Centre.

I am a fan of PATRICK MILLS AND BEER GOGGLES

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Kingfisher
Posts: 64

Posted 10/07/2011 8:13 PM

Kassandra
Posts: 448

Posted 10/11/2011 1:16 PM

i've been following the Tigers via the NBL league site. Patty's been lighting it up down there. i've had a chance, via twitter, to converse with Patty, as well as Cameron Tragardh and Ron Dorsey (who also happen to be following me on that site). they're great guys, and they love the support they're getting from portland. my only pet peeve is that they play their games at 7 p.m. local that means 2 a.m. on the west coast. i can't stay up that late on a school night!

~ KMM

I am a fan of my team fighting to win each and every game.

Posted 10/11/2011 4:36 PM

Kassandra, your not alone with the timing of the games either. Even though I live in Melbourne and the game was played at 7:30p.m, we didn't get to see the coverage until 10:40 p.m that night! The NBL is trying it's best to get more coverage for basketball in Aus, however the T.V stations treat us fans with contempt. Basketball used to be huge in the late 80's and early 90's here and played regularly on free to air television in prime time with 10 to 15 thousand turning up to big games. Now we get this fickle coverage of a game that included the debut of Patty Mills in the NBL and his team was to play the Sydney Kings which would have had Andrew Bogut on the roster; this fell through due to lack of insurance cover for his 39 million dollar contract, and may not happen at all.

That being said, I have been following Patty's comments in the media here. It should be a beneficial stint in our NBL for him with major minutes to keep fit and develop his on court leadership skills running a team as the main point guard option. It's obviously not NBA level basketball, but it is definitely a physical league that will test some aspects of Patty's game and he will be a target for every young NBL basketballer wanting to measure up to him. Whenever the NBA gets back to playing Patty will at least have put himself in the best position to try and win a roster spot with the Blazers. Watch this space....

Posted 10/11/2011 7:24 PM

Sorry forgot to add that Patty was awarded NBL player of the week honors and was 1 point short of the NBL record of 29 points for an Australian player in their debut game.

Kassandra, games are televised on free to air here on channel ONEHD. ONEHD has a website that you might be able to watch the game or highlights - worth a look.

Posted 10/12/2011 2:26 PM

@Kingfisher: i don't get ONEHD channel at school. i will check out the website. of course, that doesn't change the fact that i can't be staying up until 4:00 in the morning to catch an entire game.

~ KMM

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