FIBA: Mills could lead Boomers to title, says Pierce after U.S. loss

BEIJING - Australia point guard Patty Mills' performances at the basketball World Cup have helped propel his team into a hot favorite for the title after the United States were knocked out by France, according to NBA great Paul Pierce.

The Boomers advanced to their first World Cup semi-final with an 82-70 victory over the Czech Republic with Mills scoring 24 points while adding six assists and four rebounds.

"Australia is certainly playing really (well)," Pierce told ESPN. "Patty Mills is the perfect player for these types of games.

"He's a three point-shooter and been playing for a number of years," Pierce said. "They should be favourite."

The Boomers play Spain, who beat them in the playoff for the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics, in the last four.

Argentina, who beat 2015 runners-up Serbia, will meet France, who ended the United States' 13-year and 58-game unbeaten run in tournament play, in Dongguan.

The loss by the Americans, who had won the last two tournaments, was greeted with some surprise, although not entirely unexpected in the United States.

Many of the top NBA players, like LeBron James, James Harden and Steph Curry, were in a wider squad of players nominated for consideration for the World Cup and next year's Olympics in Tokyo, but chose to miss the current tournament in China.

The absence of the game's top players had affected the team, who struggled offensively and were a little too small to match up against other sides' big men, according to ESPN'S Brian Windhorst.

"To win, America needs more of its best," Windhorst wrote.

"It had been 13 years since Team USA didn't win a gold medal, and the importance and the honour has slipped," he said.

"America's top players have to consider their plans for next summer."

The advent of more international players in the NBA and the raising of standards in other leagues was also a factor and indicated the U.S. could not be expected to just turn up and win a global tournament, according to The Ringer's Dan Devine.

"It's worth remembering that the last three Olympic teams featuring those All-Star names still had to sweat against international opponents with lesser NBA-caliber talent, but much more cohesive rosters," Devine wrote on the website, which was founded by sports writer Bill Simmons.

Despite the loss likely to leave a "bitter taste in the mouths of American basketball fans", Sports Illustrated's Michael Shapiro wrote there was no need to panic ahead of the Olympics.

"Just one All-NBA player (Kemba Walker) joined the 2019 FIBA squad," Shapiro wrote. "This version of Team USA will bear no resemblance to the squad that will play in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics."

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Spurs spank Suns in epic blowout

San Antonio forward LaMarcus Aldridge had 23 points and 13 rebounds, and Patty Mills added 18 points off the bench as the visiting Spurs blew out the Phoenix Suns 129-81 on Wednesday at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Danny Green had 17 points, and he and Mills hit five 3-pointers apiece for the Spurs, who broke a two-game losing streak. Mills played 17 minutes.

Green made three of his 3-pointers as the Spurs opened a 25-5 lead less than 10 minutes into the game, the first of their six-game "rodeo trip" taken annually when the San Antonio stock show and rodeo occupies the AT&T Center.

Alex Len had 14 points, Josh Jackson had 13 and Dragan Bender had 12 for the Suns, who tied the worst margin of defeat in franchise history. Phoenix played without leading scorer Devin Booker (hip) for the second consecutive game.

Dejounte Murray had 14 points and three assists for the Spurs before leaving with a sprained ankle midway through second quarter, and Tony Parker had 13 points as the Spurs completed a sweep of the four-game season series.

Aldridge made 10 of 14 field-goal attempts and Green and Mills were each 6 of 9 against a Suns lineup that also was missing 7-footer Tyson Chandler, who sat out because of a neck injury.

The Spurs had a 62-44 rebounding edge and limited Phoenix to 34 percent shooting from the field. The Suns made 3 of 32 3-point attempts, two of their first 25.

San Antonio had its first full practice in almost two months Monday after the Utah Jazz shot 56.7 percent in a 120-111 victory over the Spurs on Saturday. The Spurs shot 49.5 percent from the floor against Phoenix, including 50 percent (16 of 32) from beyond the 3-point arc.

Aldridge had seven points when the Spurs finished the first half on a 13-0 run for a 69-31 halftime lead.

Mills' 3-pointer in the final minute of the third quarter gave the Spurs a 97-50 lead, and his trey in the first minute of the fourth quarter made it 100-50.

The Suns lost by franchise-record 48 points in their season opener to the Portland Trail Blazers 124-76 on Oct. 18. Coach Earl Watson was fired four days later, after a 130-88 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Suns started their 20th different lineup, with Marquese Chriss opening at center, Bender at power forward and Tyler Ulis at point guard. Ulis left with back spasms in the second quarter and did not return.

San Antonio's Davis Bertans made his second straight start in place of Pau Gasol, who had 11 rebounds off the bench. Bertans finished with nine points and six boards.

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Leonard, Mills power Spurs to 3-2 lead over Grizzlies

Kawhi Leonard and Patty Mills combined for 48 points to lead the San Antonio Spurs past the Memphis Grizzlies, 116-103, in Game 5 of their best-of-seven series in the first round of the Western Conference Finals.

After dropping the last two games on the road, the Spurs regained their bearings at home to take a 3-2 lead in the series and move to within one game of advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.

Mike Conley led Memphis with 26 points and six assists.

The winner of the series will face the Houston Rockets.

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Spurs depth on display in win vs. Clippers

The understood goal of any second unit in the NBA is to do all it can to hold its ground while its team's starters get time to rest. So when the reserves add to a lead or flip the flow of the game from one team to another, it's an unexpected bonus.

San Antonio's bench and defense were all the difference Tuesday as the Spurs' reserves helped turn a close game into a rout in the fourth quarter and walloped the Los Angeles Clippers 108-87 Tuesday night.

Kawhi Leonard poured in 20 points to lead five San Antonio players in double figures. But the Spurs (57-10) led by just a point heading to the final quarter before running away from Los Angeles in the first four minutes of the period and never looking back.

Reserve David West had all eight of his points in that fourth-quarter run, and reserve Patty Mills had seven in that stretch. The Spurs eventually expanded their lead to 99-79 and wound up winning by 21.

"They turned up the intensity and the pressure a little bit and put a 37-point fourth quarter on us," the Clippers' Chris Paul said. "There are a lot of things that happened over the course of the game for that separation to happen."

The victory was San Antonio's 33rd straight at home to open the season and extended the club's home-game regular-season win streak to a franchise-best 42 games, dating back to a loss to Cleveland last March. The Spurs' home streak the third-longest in NBA history, behind Chicago's 44-game regular-season run in 1995-96 and the continuing streak by Golden State (49 games).

LaMarcus Aldridge added 17 points for the Spurs, while Mills had 15. Manu Ginobili hit for 13 points, and Danny Green scored 12 on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.

"Our guys competed and we got a big-time spark off the bench," Aldridge said. "David (West) was huge and Patty (Mills) brought a lot of juice and energy for us. They definitely carried us down the stretch."

Chris Paul led the Clippers with 22 points and eight assists. DeAndre Jordan added 16 points and 14 rebounds for Los Angeles, and Jeff Green and J.J. Redick scored 15 and 14 points, respectively.

The San Antonio bench outscored the Clippers 51-20. The Spurs outrebounded Los Angeles 42-27 and had 25 assists to the Clippers' 15.

"It was one of those nights when out second unity just didn't have a lot," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "In the first half (our second unit) got great shots and missed them all -- I think they had three points in the first half. The same thing happened in the second half and then I thought they lost their spirit."

The Clippers (42-24) took things right to San Antonio in the opening minutes, starting the game with an alley-oop pass from Paul for a dunk by Jordan and building 10-6 lead. The Spurs grabbed the momentum and the lead on an Aldridge left-handed hook and boosted their advantage to 18-15 on two free throws by reserve Kevin Martin.

However, the Clippers finished the period with a flurry, as two baskets by Paul and two free throws from Jamal Crawford granted Los Angeles a 21-19 lead at the end of the quarter.

San Antonio's bench provided a huge boost at the start of the second quarter, fashioning a 13-1 run that handed the Spurs a 31-22 lead. That margin grew to as many as 12 points, at 45-33 on a turnaround jumper by Aldridge, before the Clippers started chipping away, outscoring San Antonio 11-3 in the final minute to get back to within 48-44 at halftime.

Paul led all scorers with 18 points at the half, while the Spurs got 14 from Leonard and 13 from Aldridge in the first 24 minutes of play.

The intensity was increased in the third quarter, and the teams played a nearly even period. Green's 3-pointer from the right wing brought the Clippers even, and Crawford's pullup jumper with 14.7 seconds to play gave Los Angeles its first lead since the first quarter.

San Antonio snatched back the advantage on a running baseline jumper from reserve Kyle Anderson that went through the net with no time on the clock, and the Spurs led 71-70 heading into the final period.

The Spurs opened the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run that was keyed by three inside baskets by West and a ringing 3-pointer by Ginobili. San Antonio ended up making 15 of its 21 shots in the final period while Los Angeles made just six of 16.

"We adjusted well and we played a way better second half -- everyone could see that," Ginobili said. "We were more energetic and aggressive and more focused. The bench players try to make a push every time, and last year the Clippers' second unit created a lot of trouble for us. Today we were more successful."

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Spurs sink Clippers by 10 in Lob City

Patty Mills and Tim Duncan lead the San Antonio Spurs (39-15) without Tony Parker to a 113-103 win over the Los Angeles Clippers (37-19) on Tuesday.

Before the first game for both teams since the All-Star break, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said Parker would be sidelined "for the foreseeable future" as he deals with several ailments, including a bruised shin, a groin strain and lower back spasms

Mills filled in for the Spurs only All-Star by scoring 16 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and Duncan delivered 19 points, 13 boards and seven assists. Three-point champion Marco Belinelli also contributed 20 points to the winning cause.

Blake Griffin poured in 35 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Clippers, who had won three in a row during a five game home stand. Jamal Crawford added 25 points and Chris Paul scored 11 with nine assists but shot just 1-of-10 from the field.

The Spurs also managed to ground the Clippers, dubbed 'Lob City' for their spectacular dunking highlights, without a single lob dunk during the game.

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Mills scores 32 to spark Spurs over Bobcats

CHARLOTTE - Australian guard Patty Mills came off the San Antonio bench to score a game-high 32 points and lift the Spurs over Charlotte 104-100 in an NBA game Saturday.

The 25-year-old from Canberra made 10-of-13 shots from the field, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, and sank 8-of-9 from the free throw line while also contributing seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Mills rescued the Spurs on a night when their starters struggled to find their shooting touch.

French guard Tony Parker went 3-of-13 and scored only nine points, while countryman Boris Diaw had 13 points and French reserve guard Nando de Colo added 15 points.

Spurs big man Tim Duncan had 16 points and 13 rebounds but made only 6-of-13 from the floor. In all, San Antonio starters went 18-of-48 from the floor.

Charlotte center Al Jefferson had 26 points and nine rebounds, while Bobcats guard Gerald Henderson added 23 points in a losing cause.

The Spurs improved to 37-14, the second-best record in the Western Conference, to stretch their Southwest division lead with a fourth win in their past five games.

Charlotte sank to 22-29, still in the eighth and final playoff position in the Eastern Conference.

The score was deadlocked at 82-82, when the Spurs seized command with a 12-4 run sparked by a Mills jumper and a floating loft shot.

Charlotte pulled within 100-97 with 10.4 seconds remaining, but de Colo added two free throws to stretch San Antonio's lead.

A Henderson three-pointer gave the Bobcats their final points, but de Colo sank two final free throws to seal Charlotte's fate.

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