Mills has 18 points on Spurs’ day for indigenous people
Patty Mills celebrated his heritage Sunday with a performance that typified his career.
Mills provided a late spark, LaMarcus Aldridge scored 21 points and the Spurs held off Miami 107102 in San Antonio on Sunday.
The win came as San Antonio became the first NBA team honor indigenous people — a meaningful cause to Mills, a St. Mary’s alum who is an Australian of aboriginal descent.
“It’s an important night and it’s really important to Patty,” San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich said. “For the indigenous people here in Texas, it’s important to all of us, but it’s sort of double for him because of his history and his background.
“He didn’t play like he did because of that; he does that every night. His energy has been there his whole career. It’s who he is.”
Mills had 18 points and
DeMar DeRozan added 20 as San Antonio snapped a twogame skid.
Mills requested the Spurs honor his ancestry as well as those of Native Americans, and the franchise obliged on the eve of Martin Luther King Day.
“Besides basketball, it was a win for us to be able to use basketball as a platform to be able to share culture and traditions and you saw it tonight,” Mills said.
Pacers 115, Nuggets 107: Domantas Sabonis had 22 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, Doug McDermott scored 18 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter and Indiana rallied late to win in Denver.
Malcolm Brogdon and T.J. Warren added 22 points each for the Pacers, who snapped a 10game skid at the Pepsi Center.
They overcame a 30point performance from the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic to win their fifth straight overall.