Photo Credit: Tom Reel / San Antonio Express-News

It’s time to take a look at how Aussie’s Andrew Bogut and Patty Mills played in week two of the 2012-13 NBA season.

ANDREW BOGUT

Andrew Bogut made a surprising return last week in Golden State’s win over Cleveland. Early last week it seemed as though Golden State were going to take the cautious approach and allow Bogut to rest and fully recover from his ongoing ankle injury.

Bogut played just over 17 minutes but wasn’t able to assert his usual authority on defense. Bogut wasn’t able to record any points but he did manage to pull down 3 rebounds, dish out 5 assists and block 1 shot. All night it looked as though he had no confidence in his ankle and that it was causing him a large amount of stress.

After the Cleveland match the Warriors said he would be rested for 7-10 days, but since then they’ve said it could be longer than that. It appears he could return in the Warriors home game against Brooklyn next Thursday.

When the Warriors lost a heart breaker in double overtime to the Nuggets it was apparent that they could’ve used Bogut’s defensive game. They had multiple opportunities to close out the match but ultimately their defense along with their free throw shooting let them down.

PATTY MILLS

Patty Mills had a fantastic week.

In the Spurs loss to the Clippers, Mills managed to get his most game time for the season thus far. Mills played over 9 minutes and registered 5 points and 1 assist. This game was a huge confidence builder for Mills. In the Spurs next match against Sacramento the confidence showed.

In the win over Sacramento Mills played 21 minutes and raked in an impressive 18 points, the second most of the match behind veteran Tim Duncan. He also dished out 3 assists and grabbed 2 rebounds. Mills provided San Antonio energy all game on both the offensive and defensive ends.

Mills’ great match against Sacramento and the fact that star point guard Tony Parker was out with the flu; meant Mills earned his first start of the season, against his old team Portland. For the third match in a row Mills was able to play more minutes than his previous season best.

He played over 23 minutes and recorded 7 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds and a steal. It was great to see Mills go head to head with Portland’s star rookie Damian Lillard. Mills didn’t get considerable game time in the tight last quarter as Spurs coach Gregg Popovich decided to go with Manu Ginobili and Danny Green as San Antonio closed out the match.

With Tony Parker back against the Lakers, it meant Mills’ minutes took a steep dive. Mills played 6 minutes for 2 points and 1 steal. His game time wouldn’t stay down for long.

In the Spurs close loss to the Knicks Mills played tenaciously for 15 minutes and put up 5 points and 1 rebound. He played tight defense against the scoring machines that were J.R Smith and Raymond Felton but was unable to combat their scoring prowess. The two combined for 42 points.

It has certainly been an encouraging start to the season for Mills. His confidence would’ve grown considerably and he also showed Gregg Popovich that he can produce solid numbers on a nightly basis. Now we just have to hope he can keep up the great work.