From Avery Johnson to Bruce Bowen to Manu Ginobili to Tony Parker to DeJuan Blair to George Hill to Tiago Splitter to Gary Neal to Danny Green to Kawhi Leonard to Boris Diaw and now Patrick Mills, the Spurs have proven, first hand, their unparalleled ability to nurture and develop valuable members of the rotation.

When you consider that the Spurs also drafted Goran Dragic, Ian Mahimni and Luis Scola — all mainstays of their respective rotations — you begin to realize that the Spurs front office is no fluke. But you already knew that.

That would explain the long list, right?

Even today, I’m still not sure how the Spurs are able to unearth players previously overlooked by other NBA franchises. But, still, time and time again; the Spurs pull off the inevitable. Sure there have been some notable missteps — letting go of Scola, signing and re-signing Richard Jefferson for example — but that shouldn’t detract from their consistent acuity.

But, again, we already knew that. Instead, I rather talk about the diminutive 6’0″ point guard out of Australia, Patrick Mills.

In four games with the Spurs, Mills is playing well enough to garner more minutes as the incumbent backup point guard. His ability to score off the dribble and knock down the open 3-pointer will do wonders for a team that is relying on Tony Parker for 33.4 minutes a game.

Mills’ averages: 10.3 points, 1.8 3-pointer, 68.0 field goal percentage and a 63.6 shooting percentage from behind the arc.

In his two games, specifically, he has logged over 20 minutes of playing time, which surely is an indictment of his quality play. Gregg Popovich is notoriously frugal with his minutes and for Mills to earn this amount of playing time this early into his tenure with the Spurs (he signed a two-year deal with a player option next year worth $885,120) is a pretty good sign.

So, with the way Mills is playing, why didn’t he garner more interest around the league? I have no idea.

Judging from his play, Mills is already a legitimate backup point guard, one that could help an inordinate amount of NBA teams. A point guard that can play serviceably behind an elite point guard — ie: Goran Dragic, C.J. Watson — and can singlehandledly lengthen the lead and shorten the toil on the starters body is, to put it mildly, pretty important.

As we enter the final three weeks of the NBA season, just be thankful that the Spurs, and not some other backup point guard deficient team (didn’t the Thunder need one? I shutter at the very thought), landed Mills.

I mean, what else is there to say about the Spurs’ front office? I’m at a loss for words. Otherwise, this piece would be infinitely longer in length.

So, yeah, Mills is pretty good and the Spurs were both lucky and savvy in retaining his services for another year. And we prevented a team like the Thunder from improving their team. Yay, us!

– One of my favorite moments of the game turned out to be a missed opportunity. With about seven minutes left in the game and the Spurs up 14, Stephen Jackson was somehow left wide open behind the arc. Jackson seemed to be startled by the lack of any defense in front of him. As he pulled up for the jumper, the crowd went completely silent. We hate the Mavs with a deep burning passion (obviously) and this shot felt like the dagger. Even though Jack failed, I relish these moments that seem so surreal in person because you can’t really script them. It just happened. The way a crowd affects the game can’t be understated.

– In 15:53, Boris Diaw notched two points on 1-1 shooting, grabbed three rebounds, dished one assist with two turnovers and a team high plus-20. Diaw’s first two points as a Spur occurred on a nice feed from Matt Bonner.

– More importantly, Diaw played surprisingly tough defense on Dirk Nowitzki. His bulky 6’8″ frame made it really tough for Dirk to regain the rhythm he had in the first quarter when he was guarded predominantly by DeJuan Blair. If this remains a trend, his defense, alone, would warrant his inclusion on this team.

– Dirk finished with 16 points and two rebounds on 23.8 percent shooting. Early on, Dirk was able to pick his favorite spots on the floor to operate. He started the game 3-for-5 and didn’t seem flustered at all. After Pop realized Blair wasn’t getting the job he rotated Matt Bonner, Blair, Diaw, Stephen Jackson and Kawhi Leonard on Dirk. Dirk finished the game 2-for-16 and seemed to be forcing his shots rather than simply taking advantage of the defense.

– Without Brendan Haywood, the Spurs were able to get to the rim with ease. San Antonio outscored Dallas, 50-16, in points in the paint. They outrebounded Dallas by 20, including an eight rebound advantage on the offensive glass.

– Great ball movement occurred early in the first quarter. The play began with a Gary Neal-Tim Duncan pick-and-roll. Jason Kidd and Ian Mahimni decided to play the screen aggressive because they wanted disrupt Neal and didn’t feel like he would make the right decision. They hedged the screen and they were flat out wrong. Neal delivered the ball to a rolling Duncan, Duncan touch pass to Blair and Blair found a weakside cutting Kawhi for the easy bucket. Spurs up, 12-8.

– Dallas scored 42 points in the second half but didn’t do so efficiently. They shot 31 percent.

– This was the Mavericks second consecutive double digit loss. The Lakers, behind Kobe Bryant’s 30 points, defeated the Mavericks by 16 points on Wednesday.

– Former Spur Ian Mahimni had a good game tonight. He stayed within himself and was the only Mav who seemed genuinely interested in protecting the rim. He scored 11 points on 5-6 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds and swatted two shots.

– Jason Terry continued to hurt the Spurs from the perimeter. He only shot 38.9 percent but that was because 10 of his shots were behind the arc. He was 4-for-10 from 3-point land and at the sight of a Terry transition 3-pointer, I just shutter and close my eyes. He’s that good. (Did I mention that I hate him?)

– Absolutely beautiful pass from Manu Ginobili to Danny Green in the fourth quarter. Ginobili threaded the needle and found a streaking Green, who wasn’t even looking Manu’s way, for the easy two.

– Matt Bonner had an interesting game. In 26:07, Bonner scored 14 points on 71.4 percent shooting, recorded five assists and two block shots. This was the first time Bonner has ever gotten 10 points and five assists in the same game. Going further, this was the second time in the last six years that a Spur has accumulated at least 10 points, five assists, four 3-pointers and two blocks in one game. That feat was accomplished on Nov. 9, 2009 against the Toronto Raptors by none other than Manu.

– Damn, I could’ve swore that Danny Green had scored at least 25 tonight. He was always open and he was cutting the rim with good pace and timing. He posted his usual well-rounded box score but he couldn’t connect on five 3-pointers that I felt were all good looks.

– We didn’t miss you Tony Parker and Tiago Splitter. The Spurs are so deep that can dismantle playoff teams without their best player and best screener.

– Coach Pop quote of the night: “That’s sweet … I hope they (Diaw and Parker) enjoy themselves on the court and are lovey dovey the whole night.”

– The Spurs next game will be against the New Orleans Hornets today at 7:00 p.m. It will be the second game of our first back-to-back-to-back of the season.