Canberran NBA star Patty Mills crashed out of the playoffs with the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday afternoon, putting his future in the league at a crossroads.
The Denver Nuggets defeated the Clippers 120-101 in game seven of their playoffs series to progress to the conference semi-finals against Oklahoma City Thunder.
Mills and fellow Australian Ben Simmons did not get any minutes in the series decider, as Kawhi Leonard led LA with 22 points.
The end of the Clippers' playoffs run also marks the end of Mills' $5.3 million contract, and he is now a free agent for next season.
Where he goes next is anyone's guess with Mills' value going beyond his modest production on the court, contributing greatly in the locker room as an experienced leader.
The NBL has been speculated as a possible destination if another NBA team doesn't snap him up for next season.
Before the NBA trade deadline at the start of the year, Mills was traded from the Utah Jazz to the Clippers.
In 2024-25 Mills has only averaged 3.8 points, 0.9 assists and 0.8 rebounds, and between the Jazz and Clippers in the regular season he played just 29 games and had an average of 11 minutes on the court, and just five minutes at LA alone.
In the Clippers' playoffs series, Mills played a single game, where he scored a three-pointer in four minutes of action.
Despite the veteran guard's limited usage as he clearly reaches the end of his time in the world's top basketball competition, Mills' achievements have been historic.
The Canberra-born basketballer is considered one of Australia's greatest sporting exports, after he was drafted with pick No.55 in 2009 by the Portland Trail Blazers.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Mills became the first Indigenous Australian to carry the nation's flag at an opening ceremony, and at the Games led the Boomers to its first medal in men's basketball - bronze.
Mills turns 37 in August this year and in his 16th NBA season he became the first Australian to play 1000 games in the league.
If he was to retire or depart the NBA after this season he would do so having been part of seven different teams, with his stint at the San Antonio Spurs delivering him a championship ring in 2014.
Mills has also earned a total of just over $85.5 million from his NBA playing contracts to date.
Simmons has an uncertain NBA future too, after he was waived by the Brooklyn Nets earlier this year and picked up by the Clippers.
LA bought out his costly Nets contract, and now the Clippers campaign is over, Simmons becomes a free agent like Mills.
Golden Nuggets set up chance to steal OKC's thunder
Nikola Jokic had plenty of help from his teammates as the Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7 of their NBA playoff series.
The Nuggets built up a big lead thanks to a dominant third quarter and raced past the Clippers to win 120-101.
The fourth-seeded Nuggets, who led by as many as 35 points, advanced to take on the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, who swept Memphis in the first round and have had a week off. The teams split their season series 2-2, with both teams winning one on the road.
The Clippers' season came to a screeching halt after they'd entered the playoffs as the hottest team in the league, having won 18 of 21 games.
Jokic had 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Aaron Gordon led Denver with 22 points, Christian Braun had 21, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook chipped in 16 each, and Michael Porter Jr scored 15.
Kawhi Leonard led Los Angeles with 22 points, but James Harden only scored seven points on 2-of-8 shooting, and Ivica Zubac had his quietest game of the series with 10 points.
Hanging over the Nuggets all season was their Game 7 fiasco in Round 2 last year when they blew a 20-point second-half lead to the Minnesota Timberwolves just when it looked like they were primed to defend the franchise's first NBA championship.
And after frittering away a 22-point fourth-quarter advantage in Game 4 of this series - only to be saved by the first buzzer-beating dunk in NBA playoff history, courtesy of Gordon - the Nuggets and Ball Arena crowd only grew more energised instead of anxious as the lead kept growing and the Clippers kept missing.
The Nuggets blew this one open with a 17-0 run in the third quarter after Leonard started the second half with a three-pointer to cut LA's deficit to 58-50.
Los Angeles led 26-21 after one quarter, but the Clippers were outscored 72-40 in the second and third quarters to trail 93-66 heading into the fourth quarter.
After picking up his third, fourth and fifth fouls over a 48-second span late in the third, Jokic went to the bench and watched his team continue to roll. He sat the entire fourth quarter.
The Nuggets began celebrating early in the fourth quarter when Westbrook willingly took a technical for hanging on the rim and swinging back and forth after his steal and dunk put Denver up 107-76.
And Denver interim coach David Adelman emptied his bench with a 111-81 lead with 5:23 left. But the Clippers went on a 7-0 run and Adelman sent his starters back in at the four-minute mark.
The Clippers ended up cutting a 35-point deficit into the teens, but Denver's lead, for a change, was too big to overcome. Their 19-point win was their biggest in a Game 7 in the franchise's playoff history.
Courtesy of team owner Steve Ballmer, more than 100 Clippers fans were flown to Denver and assembled behind one of the baskets to provide extra noise. It's an extension of "The Wall," a section for the group of super-fans that packs the Intuit Dome - also behind a basket - for Clippers games in Los Angeles.
The Nuggets had lost four of their previous five close-out games since winning the franchise's only NBA championship two years ago.
