NBL: Former Atlanta swingman set to fire for Bullets

Battling Brisbane will hope Lamar Patterson has been worth the wait when he hits the ground running in the NBL this weekend.

Lamar Patterson will hit the ground running with the Brisbane Bullets

basketball: Battling Brisbane will hope Lamar Patterson has been worth the wait when the former Atlanta Hawks swingman hits the ground running in the NBL this weekend.

The Bullets revealed Patterson had been on their radar for the past two seasons after confirming the 27-year-old would replace fellow US import Alonzo Gee for the NBL season.

Brisbane won’t need to wait much longer to see Patterson in action with the American aiming to be cleared to play in Sunday’s clash in Adelaide — three days after arriving in Australia.

The Bullets need all the help they can get after slumping to third-last with a 2-3 record following their 86-78 last round home loss to Adelaide. Brisbane next host Adelaide tonight — hours after Patterson arrives in Australia.

“Lamar is a player that has been on our radar for the past two seasons and has been until now out of our reach,” Bullets general manager Richard Clarke said. “The timing worked in terms of his availability and we are looking forward to what he is going to be able to bring to the team.”

Patterson replaces 417-game NBA veteran Gee who was released due to personal reasons just four games into the NBL season.

Patterson, who played his college basketball in Pittsburgh, was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks as the 48th pick in the 2014 draft and traded to Atlanta.

He made his NBA debut the next year and played 40 games for the Hawks. Patterson arrives from the Chinese NBL, where he averaged 45 points a game last season.

Meanwhile, Australian Ben Simmons has had a career-worst 11 turnovers as the Philadelphia 76ers crashed to a 129-112 NBA loss to the red-hot Toronto Raptors. Simmons narrowly missed out on a triple-double, finishing with 11 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

But his tally of 11 turnovers — including seven in the first half — was four more than he had previously given up in any single game.

In other NBA action, Kyrie Irving had a game-high 31 points as Boston held on for a 108-105 home win against Detroit.

Australian centre Aron Baynes chipped in with nine points and five rebounds for the Celtics in just 12 minutes.

AAP