Patty Mills magic makes every critic eat their words

Patty Mills has silenced his critics with an extraordinary performance just days before the Boomers’ Olympics campaign begins.

Tyson Otto

@tottodtsport

3 min read

July 17, 2024 - 10:10AM

FIBA Patty Mills is a force. Photo: Getty.

Patty Mills, we were wrong to ever doubt a champion.

The Boomers legend has caught fire just days before the Paris Olympics with a blistering 28-point performance against Serbia on Wednesday morning at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

In Australia’s final warm-up game before their Olympics campaign begins with a match up against Spain on July 27, Mills led his team to an impressive 84-73 victory over NBA MVP superstar Nikola Jokic’s side.

The 35-year-old rebounded with stunning flare after he had a stinker against the USA team on Tuesday morning, leading to some calls for him to be benched or used in a minor role.

Aussie legend Andrew Bogut said after the loss to America there were “concerns” about Mills’ recent form — but still believed he could have a great Olympics tournament.

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However, the former NBA No. 1 draft pick also said on an NBL Podcast that Mills could be better placed coming off the bench.

Judging from the fire he was spitting against Serbia, Boomers coach Brian Goorjian will want to keep him on the floor for all four quarters.

FIBA Patty Mills is a force. Photo: Getty.

Mills was helped by Dante Exum (15 points) and Josh Giddey (13 points) as the Boomers shut the Serbian offence down in the second half.

Australia trailed 40-39 at half time, but limited their opposition to just 34 points in the second half.

Goorjian singled Mills out when speaking after the game.

“No question there’s been a lot of talk and I’m keeping my eyes locked into the team,” Goorjian said, according to News Corp.

“He came into this thing, physically, in the best shape I’ve seen him with a motivation to play well and for us to medal.

“The more he plays — he’s been in it through a year that he hasn’t played a lot — so he needs reps, he needs games.

“But you can see, tonight, he’s an important piece for us and he’s highly motivated.”

Goorjian’s players were involved in a handful of prickly moments with their opposition and tensions nearly boiled over late when Giddey put Mark Guduric on his backside before the Serbian got back to his feet and into the face of the Aussie NBA star.

After struggling to shoot beyond the arc against the USA, Mills dropped four three-pointers on Wednesday.

“We’re satisfied at where we’re at, right now, but know that there’s a lot of hard work still in front of us to get to our end goal,” he said.

Patty Mills cutting Serbia apart. Photo by Christopher Pike/Getty Images.

“The best part of this preparation is the quality of games that we have leading into Paris and I think tonight and last night (Team USA), too, was a great example of storing a lot of things in the bank and making sure we put that forward in terms of Paris.

“So, happy where we’re at, we’ve still got a long way to go, though, and we’re going to keep stacking days.”

While Mills didn’t choose to rub his critics’ noses in it after his performance, there were plenty of basketball fans out there willing to do it for him.

It is just one of countless times Mills has shown he is superman when he wears green and gold. One fan summed it up, writing: “Bro, Olympics Patty Mills is nasty”.

Statement game for Patty Mills. Up to 25 vs Jokic & Serbia with 2mins to go.

Silencing a lot of noise ðŸ‡¦ðŸ‡º pic.twitter.com/FegItOFwYA
— spice ðŸ‡¦ðŸ‡º (@sixerspice) July 16, 2024

Patty Mills was absolutely huge tonight. This performance was exactly what he needed to get himself going ahead of the Olympics.
— Jack Powell (@JackPowell43) July 16, 2024

Patty Mills is a god in international playðŸ¤£
— AI Kwamage8ï¸âƒ£ (@SethSB_) July 16, 2024

I swear Patty Mills on the Australian National Team is a top 15 PG of all time.
— Joey LeMaster (@tmlemaster) July 16, 2024

It was a very different story just 24 hours earlier.

The beloved veteran looked off the pace in the Boomers’ respectable 98-92 loss to the USA.

He made just two out of eight shots, conceding five turnovers and was a minus 16 on the all important “plus/minus” team metric during his time on the court.

Based on what we saw on Wednesday, it’s clear we were wrong to ever doubt the champ.

Boomers Olympics schedule of games