He is a 2 guard in a point guards body, delly should start at PG i think

Patty currently has 22 points on 8/21fg with 4 assists in 30+ mins late in the fourth vs Phoenix

anon, On Defense they could have Patty guarding the PG, and Delly Guard the 2

What other options does Australia have, until we can find a couple of 6" 4' or 6" 5' guys that can shoot it from outside the arc and have the handles, plus the decision making ability of a PG / SG to take it to the rack in a crowd and score consistently, we have to go with the best we have!

These two have not really played a whole lot together outside of maybe College at St Mary's so we need to give them a go, see what happens....

Maybe they will surprise us?

I've been calling for a Delly/Patty 'combo' guard backcourt for a while now, the emphasis being more on Delly as a playmaker and Patty as a scorer. It would also allow Newley to come off the bench as an impact sixth man, and also enable Brett Brown's plan of having both Gibson and Martin in the team.

Bear - Patty and Delly did not play together at St Mary's. They would have if Patty didn't decide to leave early, but they missed each other by a year.

Thanks Vart, I guess it just proves my point to some degree mate, they have not had too much of a chance to show what they can do together and should be given that opportunity before we judge them too harshly...

With Popovich also being rested, which assistant coach took over? With Mills hogging like that, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Brett Brown giving the green light.

Bear, you're quite right mate, they just need to chance. I think it could work out very well, especially defensively. Delly can lock down bigger guards, and Patty can go all out in the full-court harrassment of the opponent PG.

Good one Anon #359959. Thanks for your positive contribution and attitude.

I'm all for constructive suggestions (like Delly alongside Mills) but what's wrong with him jacking up shots in a completely different competition if the instruction was presumably for him to shoulder some scoring? Seems like simply looking for a gripe. The guy had his career high - surely we can appreciate that whether it was in a junk game or not?

A lot of NBA point guards get their shots up - Williams, Westbrook (3/22 FG recently), etc. Big deal.

The haters keep hating...

Well done Patty - and he nailed 2/2 from the line at the death to seal the win.

A new career-high, team high and as a starter. I'm sure Patty is doing what he has been told to do...

Sensational stuff. Career high,his undermanned team wins. What more needs to be said. I just don't understand why there needs to be any negativity about what Mills did today.

Good to see him get big minutes and make something of it. 9/23 isnt great but bad shooting nights arent as frowned on in the NBA if you get the numbers in the end, not to mention make the clutch FTs. Amazing step up from a couple of years back to now nail 27 in a meaningful game! Hopefully this will help him get some playoff minutes.

As for the lovez v haterz debate, seriously, it's a load of crap. If someone thinks 27p on 9/23 is amazing, theyre allowed to think that. If someone thinks he shouldnt be jacking up so many shots, that's perfectly fine too. Neither of those arguments are unreasonable.

He seemed to shoot at a better clip as the game wore on and his AST/TO ratio improved.

Re the suggestion that using a starting combo of Mills and Dellavedova would enable having both Martin and Gibson in the squad as well, that to me would be a terrible decision. That'd be far too much dead weight in the team. In 2008 the Boomers seemed to do ok with just two primary ballhandlers (Bruton and Mills). If Mills and Delly are in the side I personally don't think you need either of Martin or Gibson. Though I would bring in someone like Crawford who can at least stretch the d.

I'm guessing that no one posting here has ever missed a shot while playing in an NBA game?

Jez, I was alluding to the Gibson/Martin issue purely because it seems Brett Brown likes to run with that many guards. He had Mills/Gibson/Markovic/Martin in Turkey, and continued the trend with Mills/Dellavedova/Gibson/Martin in the Olympic qualifiers last year, with three of those guys coming off the bench.

Issac, I agree totally with what you're saying. Given the big three were out I definitely think Mills would have been given the green light to make plays. And I don't think it was a junk game either, with Phoenix playing for the eighth spot.

In terms of pairing Mills with Delly, I just think we need to play to Patty's strength. He is obviously a world class scorer, so why should we force him into being a distributor? Take away the pressure of him having to run the offence, and just let him do what he does best.

Vart, the suns were only playing for pride, their lost to the Jazz the other night gave the Jazz the final playoff spot. It might have been Nash's last game as a sun though

Pretty sure it would be the other way around. We arent going to beat the USA though, so worrying about matchups with them is kind of pointless.

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL SCORING PERFORMANCES BY AUSTRALIANS IN THE NBA.

Andrew Bogut: 32 v Dallas, 2010
Patty Mills: 27 v Phoenix, 2012
Chris Anstey: 26 v Boston, 1998
Luc Longley: 24 v Milwaukee, 1998
David Andersen: 19 v Los Angeles Lakers, 2009
Nathan Jawai: 16 v Portland, 2009
Shane Heal: 15 v Seattle, 1996

Mills has 10 points in the first 5 minutes of the game of 4/6 shooting with 1 assist. That scoring record might be at risk!

14 at the end of the 1st. 6/9 from the field.

Patty Mills has 16 points, 3 Assists and 1 Block Shot, 3 Turnovers, 1 Steal, 2 Rebs, shooting 6-10 (2-4 from 3pt) - 8 mins gone in 2nd Qtr!

Finished with 18 and 4 for the half. Let's hope he gets 30 and 10! Great game so far

4 assists and 3 turnovers...if he can keep the TO's down in the 2nd half and keep shooting at the good clip he is - should be great numbers!

He also nailed a buzzer beater at the half-time buzzer!

Certainly speaks highly of the NBL that Patty can perform like this in the NBA. He is really showing he belongs.

His halftime shooting clip is good. Hope he can keep it up.

At the half:
18 points (7/12 FG, 2/5 3pt), 4 assists, in just under 20 minutes.

Although we should point out that apparently Golden State has started 5 rookies. Not exactly great competition.

rjd - Patty has 22 and 6 in just over a half. He's appropriately carving up those NBA rookies.

Up to 22 and 9 near the end of the 3rd

22 and 9 at the end of the 3rd. Any Aussies ever got a double-double in assists?

22pts (9/17 FG, 2/7 3PT, 2/2 FT), 9ass, 1stl, 1blk, 4to up to 3 qtr time!

A big double-double coming up folks! He is shooting at more than 50% and has a great assist to turnover ratio so far...

Go Patty!

LC, do you run Aussie Hoopla?

24 and 12 now. Has 5 boards as well. Should see some highlights on NBA.com later - some assists led to dunks for team mates

Nope...

24 points, 12 assists, 4 turnover's...6min to go and we have a 2-point ball game.

Oh, and 5 rebounds...

30 points now, 5 mins to go

Wow! two massive triples to give the Spurs some breathing space...32 points, 12 assists, 5 rebounds with 4 TO's so far...

34, 12 and 5 for the game. Congrats Patty on a huge game and another win for the Spurs!

Mills enjoying the PT against the tanking Warriors. Some clutch plays for Mills.

34 pts (14/25 FG, 4/10 3pt), 12 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal, 4 turnovers in 43 minutes.

So is that the Aus record for Mills then? Congratulations either way Patty!

Massive, massive game for Mills - a big double-double! He basically led the star-less Spurs to a second straight win.

34 points (14/25 FG, 4/10 3PT, 2/2 FT), 5 rebounds, 12 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 4 turnovers in 43 minutes.

He shot just under 50% which is very good going and made the big plays and shots down the stretch to get the win.

Top Aussie individual scoring efforts of all time in the NBA revisited...

Patty Mills: 34 vs Golden State, 2012
Andrew Bogut: 32 v Dallas, 2010
Patty Mills: 27 v Phoenix, 2012
Chris Anstey: 26 v Boston, 1998
Luc Longley: 24 v Milwaukee, 1998
David Andersen: 19 v Los Angeles Lakers, 2009
Nathan Jawai: 16 v Portland, 2009
Shane Heal: 15 v Seattle, 1996

Even higeer than Kyrie Irvings high score of 32!

And got the Spurs to 50 wins with #'s 49 and 50 coming with Patty as the starting PG, dropping 61 points over the two games! Amazing.

LC: If you're going to list both Patty's high games in your list then Bogut is going to clog your leaderboard.

Bogut had 31 points in Dec 2010 against Orlando
Bogut had 31 points in Dec 2009 against Indiana
Bogut had 29 points in Dec 2007 against Phoenix

Numerous more 25+ games.

You can check his entire career of game logs at either Yahoo or ESPN.

Since LC produced the first list, I'd say he accidentally left in Mills previous performance when updating it.

Yep I did...