Mills led Australia with 30 points, including 13 in the final quarter, to stun the Americans 98-94 in front of 52,079 fans at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on Saturday.

After being overrun in the second half of Thursday night's opening match of the exhibition series, Australia were in danger of suffering a similar fate once Team USA built a 10-point lead midway through the third quarter.

But the Boomers clawed their way back to lead heading into the final quarter and with the game on the line, Mills caught fire with 10 points in the final three minutes to secure the victory.

"It's huge on many accounts," Mills said about the significance of knocking off the world's best basketball nation on home soil.

"Obviously this is just an exhibition game but to see the full support come out in full force, it just shows that the support is there.

"To be able to feed off this hopefully for years to come and get basketball back to the high-quality sport that it is within this country I think is important."

Mills feels the landmark result will keep the squad locked in and focused on trying to create more history with a medal finish at the upcoming FIBA World Cup.

"We are trying to build towards what the ultimate goal is of being able to win a medal at a major championship and this is just the process to get there," Mills said.

"I think the big victory is just being able to play quality games to be able to prepare us the best way that we can.

"So this is just one step towards getting to where we need to be and growing and building as a group."

But the 31-year-old Mills, an NBA championship winner with the San Antonio Spurs, couldn't help but reflect on how much their achievement could mean for the sport in Australia.

"Just trying to take a moment to soak it up but this is awesome," he said.

"There are basketball fans out there in the country and they needed something like this so hopefully we can back it up and keep building on it."

Australian Associated Press