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Look up Patty Mills’ page on Basketball-Reference.com, and it will tell you he is a point guard.

The times when Mills begins to gauge himself by the classical definition of that position are the times when he gets himself in trouble.

“At times, I get into a mode of trying to be a John Stockton or a Steve Nash,” Mills said Saturday, after his 10-point fourth-quarter outburst helped the Spurs fend off the New York Knicks 106-98. “That’s not who I am.”

The Spurs know exactly who their backup point guard is.

“He’s one of the best scorers in the world,” Pau Gasol said.

With the game against the lowly Knicks teetering and the AT&T Center getting edgy, Mills rediscovered his Pop-A-Shot identity.

The result was a tougher-than-expected victory for the Spurs, on the cusp of a week that will bring both of last season’s NBA finalists – Cleveland and Golden State – to town within a three-day span.

Playing without leading scorer Carmelo Anthony, and with second-leading scorer Kristaps Porzingis going without a field goal until the fourth quarter, the Knicks had nevertheless carved a 20-point deficit to three with 9:12 to play.

Derrick Rose and Willy Hernangomez had tag-teamed to bring the Knicks back, combining for 23 points during a 31-point third quarter that had New York thinking upset.

“It was a little disappointing, after such a great half, we let them back in the game,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. “We dodged a bullet.”

Ahead 61-43 at half, against a New York team already eyeing the draft lottery, the Spurs seemed positioned for an easy-does-it-finish.

Then the Spurs slumped to 8 for 27 in the third quarter, Rose and Hernangomez began to slice them up, and suddenly there was tension inside the AT&T Center.

“We have to understand that it’s business time,” Mills said. “Those little errors we tend to get away with during the regular season, we can’t do that anymore. We have to make ourselves accountable for them, and that’s the theme going into the playoffs.”

It was Mills, the 28-year-old Australian fire-starter, who defibrillated the Spurs to life again. Mills was scoreless heading into the fourth quarter, having missed both of his field goal attempts to that point.

He did have six assists, which was nice, but also a sign he was inching a little too close to Stockton territory.

“There were a couple times there in the third quarter I could have shot it but I didn’t,” Mills said. “So it’s being aggressive and understanding when to shoot open shots.”

With the game getting dicey in the fourth, Mills needed no reminding to let the ball fly.

After Porzingis brought the Knicks to within 83-80 on a pair of foul shots early in the final frame, Mills dribbled behind a Dewayne Dedmon screen for a toe-on-the-3-point line jumper.

Later, he swished back-to-back 3-pointers, found Kawhi Leonard for another open 3 and then completed a layup over Porzingis despite a goal-tend.

Mills scored all of his points during a stretch of 3:43 of the fourth quarter. By the time he was finished, the Spurs had regained command of the game with a 10-point lead that was on its way to 14.

“That shot has got to be respected,” Ginobili said. “Maybe one day he’s 0-for-4, but he’s not the type of player that gets disappointed or thinks a lot about what the stats are saying. He keeps playing the same way.”

An MVP candidate, Leonard remains the Spurs’ most important player. He had 29 points Saturday and made 11 of 18 shots, including 4 of 6 from the 3-point stripe.

LaMarcus Aldridge (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Pau Gasol (19 points, 10 rebounds) each chipped in double-doubles.

Gregg Popovich defines what the frenetic Mills brings to the Spurs in a word.

“Pace,” Popovich said. “He gives us great pace. Obviously, he made some shots, but he gets everybody moving.”

Mills’ importance to the Spurs can also be quantified numerically.

Including Saturday, the Spurs are 34-2 when Mills reaches double figures.

From that standpoint alone, Mills’ fourth-quarter mini-explosion was significant.

“Just the Spurs being the Spurs,” said Rose, who matched Hernangomez with 24 points to lead New York. “I think Patty Mills had a two or three open looks from the top of the key and they were kind of contested, but they weren’t. Especially with a shooter like that, you have to get all over the ball.”

When the Spurs needed a few big baskets to pull away Saturday, it was not a Stockton or Nash clone who delivered them.

It was Patty Mills, being Patty Mills.

“He started making shots when we most needed it,” Gasol said. “We were glad to see that.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN