FIBA Patty is a scoring machine, check the stats

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OKINAWA (Japan) - Australia did not get the result it wanted against Germany in their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 encounter on Sunday, but it was undeniably a night that saw Patty Mills further cement his place as one of the best Boomers ever.

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By scoring 21 in their 85-82 loss, the 35-year-old has now scored 10-plus points in each of his 16 games in the World Cup, the third-best scoring run in the 21st century only behind Pau Gasol (24) and Dirk Nowitzki (18), the latter of whom was in attendance and witnessed the nail-biting affair.

Furthermore, he has now scored 15 or mote points in his last 10 World Cup games. Only three players had better such runs in the history of the tournament - Oscar Schmidt, Andrew Gaze, and Gasol. Elite company, indeed.

With that kind of consistency, the floor general from Canberra is now the Boomers' second-all-time leading scorer in the FIBA Basketball World Cup with 311 points.

Mills entered the game 12 points away from surpassing Phil Smyth in the list, and he only needed a little over three minutes to move up to the ranks.

He scored the team's first 13 points to will his side back from a slow 0-8 start, and the last field goal of that series was an amazing long three from near the logo to end a fast break.

In their 98-72 opening-day win over Finland last Friday, he also led the way with a game-high 25 points to move past Ray Borner at third in the same all-time scoring list.

Now, he's risen to no. 2, which he accomplished right before Andrew Gaze, a member of the FIBA commentary team calling the games in Okinawa.

Gaze is touted as one of the greatest players Australia has ever produced and is the Boomers' all-time World Cup scoring leader with 594, which is also third in the World Cup's all-time scoring list as well behind fellow global legends Oscar Schmidt (843) and Luis Scola (716).

FIBA