Aaron Baynes has a huge game for the Spurs against the Toronto Raptors

Arron Baynes got to play some decent minutes with the Spurs back up centre Tiago Splitter injured and out for the night. He played 21 minutes and had a career high 14 points and 6 rebounds he was also a monster on defense shutting down the Raptors centre Jonas Valuciunis. Baynes has struggled to get some decent court time with the Spurs lately and spent some time in the NBA D league where he immediately dominated and was quickly brought back into the line up. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich had this to say on Baynes "[Aron] Baynes did a great job. He hasn't played that much but he went down to the D-League and played a few games to stay in shape, kept himself ready and it showed tonight. He came in and did a really good job for us."
Patty Mills played 16 minutes and had 11 points off 3-4 shooting from the 3 point line. Their was  great play where Baynes saved the ball from out of bounds and threw it up where Bellinelli got his hands on it and with a no look pass got the ball to an open Patty Mills for the 3 pointer. It was a good game and great to see the Aussies getting some decent minutes and being productive with what their given.

Check out Baynes making the highlight real with the play of the game

 And heres his highlights from the D league game that got him back into the Spurs line up. Looks like he has carried some of that confidence over to the NBA. I really hope we get to see more of him on the floor.

Spurs vs Cavaliers: Mathew Dellavedova starts in a game that features 3 Aussies

Mathew Dellavedova again is starting for the Cavaliers playing against the San Antonio Spurs.

In the first second of the game Delly draws the foul on the game high scorer Danny Green and the Cavaliers get possession. Delly opens playing D on Parker and obviously its a huge start to a rookie season for the un-drafted Aussie and he hits his first shot of the game, a 3 pointer to keep the Cavs alive early 5-9.

Patty Mills comes off the bench and matches up against Delly at the 6 min mark in the first quarter. Mills drains a 3 taking it out to a 10 point lead at the 5 min mark 11-21. Later in the game we got to see all 3 Aussie's on the floor at the same time. Mills had a good game getting steals and a couple of 3’s by midway in the second.

With the Spurs up 29 points Aaron Baynes gets some court time. Delly and Mills were off though. Closing the half Baynes gets a rebounds and a lays it up on the buzzer but wasn't counted. 65-32 with the Spurs having a commanding lead already

Delly started the second half and a Tim Duncan dunk open the scoring. By the 10min 21sec mark the cavs were already down by 40, 32-72. With the huge lead San Antonios head Coach Popovich sends out the bench and Aaron Baynes gets on the floor .

Jarred Jack hurt his neck and Delly is back on to shoot his free throws and gets both 58-91 2:48. From here Jack wasnt allowed to come back on the Delly played out the rest of the game. Popovich got to choose Delly to shoot the free throws. Delly got a steal and makes the basket in the fast break for his 5^th point in the game and the last point in the quarter going into the last quarter 67-96.

Opening the last quarter their are 3 aussies on the floor Baynes Mills and Delly.

Delly made another intercept and Baynes made a tough shot driving into the inside. In one play Mills

stops Delly driving to the hole with the help of Baynes but the cavs miss an open Delly as the d switched back. They need to work out some smarter basketball and hit the open player. Cav's have a long way to go till they are well rounded team. With the game in the bag for the Spurs Mathew Dellavedova has been able to show off some of his offensive talent nailing a few little mid range floaters and finally got to show some of his best plays with the on ball screen. Mills made a few triples to close out the game and the spurs win 126-96. Baynes and Delly have a hug and talk after the Buzzer and its awesome to see so many Aussies in the NBA again.

Mathew Dellavadova in 34 minutes had 14 points, 4 steals, 2 assists and 2 rebounds

Patty Mills in 23 minutes had 15 points, 1 steal, 3 assists and 3 rebounds

Aaron Baynes in 21 minutes had 6 points, 2 assists and 5 rebounds

Danny Green top scored the game with 17 points. 

Patty Mill leads the Spurs past the Magic in the NBA preseason

With Tony Parker sitting out Patty Mills explodes for 22 points, 5 steals and 2 blocks in the Spurs preseason game against the Magic. He looks to be in good form heading into the start of the season and hopefully we will get to see him get some decent minutes in the regular season. Iv added a small highlights clip from NBA.com which shows some of his plays and the quick inbound steal Patty seems to get quite a lot off a made shot.

Ex NBA player Jonny Flynn to play for the Melbourne Tigers

Former NBA player Jonny Flynn may suit up for the Melbourne Tigers this friday. The Melbourne Tigers have had a dismall start to the season under their new Coach Chris Anstey and have fired their current import guard Kevin Braswell. Jonny Flynn will fly in to take over from the aging and still injured Brasswell and may play in the friday game against the Adelaide 36ers. Jonny Flynn was the No. 6 overall draft pick in the 2009 NBA draft after a stellar performance at the unviversity of Syracuse. Since then he has played for Minnesota, Houston, Portland and most recently Detroit.

Chris Anstey said that Flynn is the one of the highest quality players the NBL has seen in some time.
"He's in his prime and wanted to reinvigorate his career and we're really excited about what he's going to bring,"

Releasing Brasswell who has had some big games for the Tigers Anstey had this to say, "Kev has been an absoute pro this whole time but he has been playing hurt and we need someone with a few different capabilities to really help us build on what we are doing here," Anstey said

Jonny Flynn stands 6ft at 1.83m and in his prefessional career averages 9.2 points and 3.9 assists per game at around 22min a game.

This is a huge pick up not only for the Melbourne tigers who are trying to turn their season around but also for the NBL as a whole to still recruit NBA players. From last season's Patty Mills to now Jonny Flynn hopefully NBA players who may be having a slump in form may see Australia as a place to turn around their carreer and get some big contracts out of it as Mills did when he went to play in China. 

Check out some of Flynns highlights below. He will definitly be one to see in his coming matches and I'm sure the other point guards in the league will love a chance to run at him and test him every chance they get.

USA defeat Australia 86-119

Team USA has defeated Australia by 33 points at the Olympic Quarter finals today. Australia were coming out of a win over Russia in the preliminary rounds only to face team U.S.A at the Quarter finals. The Boomers played well for 3 of the 4 quarters, not letting team U.S.A get to far out in front. The last quarter was where the Boomers fell and team U.S.A just surged ahead.

The first half saw a nervous Boomers squad miss many open opportunities, missing free throws and lay ups; but they still held a respectable 21-28 first quarter. The second quarter was very similar to the first with the U.S.A getting up by a further 7 points to take the lead to 14 going into the second half.
Starting the second half was some impressive play from Patty Mills who scores a 3 pointer and then makes a steal on the to finish a lay up within 25 seconds of the half beginning. The Boomers picked up their game and managed to get it back to 6 points, but some excellent 3 point shooting from team U.S.A; which saw that lead stretch back up to 12. The Boomers held on through the third quarter and it looked like they might win a quarter, but they managed to finish it 28-28 with team U.S.A still holding onto a 14 point lead 84-70. Through the game the ref's did a good job, but for many plays they were initimidated by the reputations of the U.S.A players and gave them several advantages in calls. As Newly stated to the ref, "He yells every time I touch him" (talking about Lebron James to the ref). Andrew Gaze on commentating tried to stay diplomatic, stating
"The players have lost confidence in the ref's ability not to be intimidated by the reputations of Team U.S.A. Not that I'm saying that the call was incorrect."

The final quarter saw the Boomers fall apart and team U.S.A capitalize. From 12 down Kobe Bryant hit his hot streak and sunk three 3 pointers in a row without any points made from the Boomers. From there it was all downhill. James Hardin made some huge alley oops and dunks. Every play became a show for team U.S.A displaying their incredible skill to finish the game up by 33 points, at 86-119. I was surprised that Brett Brown did not give the bench players a run in the dying minutes just to get to play against the best in the world. Adam Gibson and Peter Crawford were the only two players not to get any minutes on the court. Patty Mills was the top scorer for the night finishing with 26 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists followed by Kobe Bryant who finished with 20 points. Kobe had a slow start to the game going 0 from 4 but was on fire later in the game. Joe Ingles played the full 40 minutes and was probably our best player for the game finishing with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Lebron James had a triple double with 11 points 14 rebounds and 12 assists. Aaron Baynes had a highlight in the dying seconds of the game, with a huge block on Anthony Davis to close out the game. Matthew Dellevadova played well for the majority of the game, but gave up a couple of turnovers in the last quarter. He is a strong point guard and the team looked better when he was playing the point and Patty was in the no. 2 spot.

It was a good game that should have been closer for how the Boomers played for the majority, but they were out classed in the final quarter. It was unfortunate we did so poorly in the preliminary rounds. If Australia had won one of those losses we would not have faced America so early and could have faced an easier team in the quarters finals. After Russia was defeated by the Boomers, they defeated Lithuania 83-74 and are now set to play Spain in the semis for a shot at the final.

Australia loses to Brazil 75-71

In a game that ended up going down to the wire Brazil came up triumphant 71-75. Channel 9 did a terrible job on the broadcast as usual but at least showed the last quarter which unfortunately was all I got a chance to catch. Brazil took control in the third quarter of the game after a close first two halves the had an early 10 point lead. Australia's 3 point shooting was woeful in those first 3 quarters but managed to hit a few in the fourth, combined with some fast transition plays got us back to a manageable figure. Some big shots and plays from Anderson continued the trend till we were down by 2 with 28 seconds left on the Clock. From here some good defence held Brazil from scoring till a foot fault from Australia restarted the Shot clock to 14 second with 9 seconds left in the game. On the inbound pass Patty Mills nearly made a miracle interception but missed and had to foul the Brazil player who made both shots to finish the game 71-75. It was good effort to get back into game and took it to the wire but just fell short. I was surprised they did not play Peter Crawford he would be their best three point shooter and when they needed some big shots to go in Brett Brown didn't give him the nod. I Was dissapointed in his coaching their, the boomers really looked liked they needed an offensive presence that could drain the long ball. Their were some questionable technical foul calls through the game but it was a good close game that in the end could have gone either way and was a great effort from the Boomers who were playing a strong Brazil line up with a couple of NBA players.

Brazil
Barbosa 16pts, 4 rebounds
Huertas 15pts, 4 rebounds
Varejao 12pts, 7 rebounds
Nene 10 points, 7 rebounds
Splitter 7 pts, 7 rebounds

Australia
Mills 18pts, 7 rebounds
Ingles 15pts, 3 rebounds
Andersen 14pts, 8 rebounds
Baynes 10pts, 5 rebounds
Dellavedova 6pts, 3 rebounds

Spain defeats Australia in a close pre olympic game

Before you read ahead and find out the score if you would like to catch a replay here is the link (its only in Spanish however but still enjoyable. Think of it as a spanish lesson:

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/baloncesto/

Its a great game if you get a chance to watch it.

Spain the current number 2 team in the world this morning defeated the Australian Boomers 75-69. This is a big statement for the Boomers it shows that they can run with the big boys even without Andrew Bogut and that Brett Brown was not full of shit when he said he thinks they can win a medal. Many expected The boomers to go down by 30. Spain was led to the victory by NBA star Pau Gasol from the LA lakers who was the game leading scorer finishing with 22 points. It was a close game with scores tied at half time 35-35. The Patty Mills and Mathew Dellevadova guard match worked well with Mills scoring 14. Brad Newley was the top Scorer for the Boomers with 16. It was a team effort from the Boomers with 4 players in double figures. Australian NBL players Mark Worthington and Adam Gibson got a decent amount of minutes and made some big plays, Peter Crawford however did not get to see the court. You could see why Worthington would be going overseas next year, he really has some skills and ball smarts, Excluding one airball in the last quarter. Going into the final break Spain was up by 1, but played better in the final quarter winning it 21-16 and winning the game 75-69. The Boomers can take a lot of confidence from this game as it was close and either team could have gotten the W. The Boomers may well be the Dark horse of the Olympics this year and do better then anyone expected.
Iv included a game boxscore at the bottom of the page as well. if you would like to see individual players points.

75 - España (19+16+19+21): Calderón (4), Rudy (9), Navarro (-), Reyes (12), Pau Gasol (22) -cinco inicial- Rodríguez (3), Llull (9), Claver (7), San Emeterio (4), Ibaka (5) y Sada (-). 69 - Australia (16+19+18+16): Mills (14), Worthington (-), Ingles (10), Andersen (12), Maric (1) -cinco inicial- Crawford (-), Gibson (4), Newley (16), Dellavedova (5), Barlow (3), Baynes (4), Nielsen (-).

Patty Mills gets good minutes in a depleted Spurs Roster. Career high game's

Patty Mills had another career high game against the Golden State Warriors. In his second chance as a starter he filled the stat sheet with 34 points, 12 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block. The Spurs had an all bench starting 5 and Mills finished the night getting 43 minutes on the court. This was the highest score for any Australian in the NBA and the highest number of assists for an australian in one game. He really showed what he can do in this game and led the Spurs to the win with some big baskets down the stretch."Chances don't come up very often where you send your three big dogs back to San Antonio," Mills said. "I was very pumped to have this opportunity. I felt very comfortable to just slide in there and take it on with both hands."
Here is the highlights from the game. Lets hope after this performance he can get some playoff court time.

He has ended the regular season averaging 10.3 points per game and is not bad for a third string point guard.

The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Phoenix Suns 110-106 on April 25th. The Spurs have won 23 from their last 26 games and have guranteed the No.1 western conference playoff spot going into the finals. They played with a depleted line up to rest their stars going into the finals. They sent Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili home to rest as well as head coach Gregg Popovich. This gave assistant coach Brett Brown the ability to give some of the other players a chance off the bench, giving Patty Mills a big shot at showing what he could do as a point guard in the starting line up.
"It's one of those funny situations, end of the season and resting guys," Mills said. "As crazy as it is, it does make a lot of sense. I thought for the main guys to go back and recharge the batteries before the playoffs, that's a chance to give the other guys a great opportunity."
Mills was on court for 35 mins, scored 27 points with a low 9 of 23 field goals and 3 of 8 three pointers. He also finished with a decent 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal.
It may however have been Suns star point guard and 2 time league MVP Steve Nash's final game with the suns or final game in the NBA. The Crowd responded rising in the chant of "we want Nash" over and over till coach Alvin Gentry sent the 38 yr old back onto the court.
"It was obviously amazing to get that type of reception and support," Nash said. "It's very special because it's not something I asked for or imagined to get that type of spontaneous reaction. It means it's authentic, the relationship that I thought we had."
With just 17 minuts on the court Nash finished with 8 points 7 assists and 3 rebounds. Closing out the season second in the league for assists behind Rajon Rondo who is averaging 10.8 assists per game.
It will be interesting to see what Nash chooses to do next season as he is still playing some very good basketball.
Patty Mills had a good game as his first role as a starter but may have a second chance as the Spurs will continue to rest their stars for their next game against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.

Highlights from the game can be seen below.

Boomers coach Brett Brown interview

Just a good interview with Brett Brown about the Boomers going into the olympics

Patty Mills making a good start with the Spurs

Patty Mills has made a good start with the San antonio Spurs. It was a good pick for the spurs not spending much and picking up a good player who can hit the three and control the ball to the level of their star point guard Tony Parker. Patty Mills in his first 6 games is averaging 9.2 points per game at 54% from the field and 43% from the 3 point line.
On the defensive end his speed makes him able to pick up any player on the court but his diminutive size makes guarding bigger guards and mismatches that much harder.
His time in the NBL has increased his basketball IQ and shown what it takes to be a team leader. On the spurs he is bench player but that time in Australia increased his decision making abilities to not always go for the first shot and looking for a better play. He is no longer shooting to early in the possession unless its in transition and his open, but still racking up the points when he gets a chance
His had two 4 assists games so far and on his biggest game yet this season scored 20 points and 4 assists against the cleveland caveliers. His highlights from that game can be seen below. Even on off shooting nights as against Utah he still managed 9 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 1 steal stacking up the stat sheet. He still has 12 games left for the rest of the regular season and lets hope his consistency continues and he keeps getting the minutes to show what he can do.

Spurs vs Kings Game Mills Plays again

The San Antonio Spurs 117 take down the Sacramento Kings 112 in their 6th straight win. Also winning 9 from their last 10 games. Patty Mills was on the court and played 6min 28 sec and making 3 of his 5 field goals scoring 7 points for his limited time on the court. Manu Ginobili led the Spurs with 20 points, Kawhi Leonard had 19 points and 9 rebounds, Tim Duncan had 18 points and 8 rebounds, Gary Neal had 13 points and Tony Parker had 10 points and 10 assists. But this is good for the young Australian Point Guard being part of a good winning team and will hopefully continue to get more minutes as he gets time to train with his team mates.

Patty Mills to the Spurs

Patty Mills is finally getting to play again. He's been recruited by the San Antonio Spurs and should be playing when he can get his visa sorted. The Spurs star point guard Tony Parker injured his hamstring in the recent game against Minnesota and if the move works out Mills should be on the court in the coming games. The assistant coach of the Spurs is Brett Brown the Australian coach. Patty Mills plays under Brett Brown with the Boomers which probably got him the job.

Patty has been in limbo since his controversial dismissal from the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in China and has been itching to play some ball. There were even rumours of him suiting up in Australia's South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) but that was exaggerated hype there is no way a NBA player would play a bush league like the SEABL. It will be good to see Mills back on the court. Hopefully he'll stay a regular member this time.

UPDATE:
The San anotonio Spurs announced today that Patty Mills has got his Visa sorted and will be playing tonight. Mills will be wearing the No. 8 jersey and is expected to get some court time in todays game against the Phoenix Suns. Heres some highlights of his time with the Portland Trailblazers.

The San Antonio Spurs got up over the Pheonix Suns today 107-100. Patty Mills played just under 5 min and got 1 rebound and 1 foul. Was put in just to put some extra pressure on Steve Nash and give Tony Parker a few minutes rest. Mills wasnt able to train with the Spurs as his visa was still not sorted. Hopefully once he gets some training in with his new team he will get some more minutes on the court and maybe rack up some better stats.