2012 Olympians Maintaining Championship Pace In NBA Season

Colorado Springs, Colorado • January 4, 2013

Heading into the 2013 portion of the NBA season, members of the gold medalist 2012 U.S Olympic team are continuing their golden run.

Of a possible 379 games played by their teams to date (1/03/13), the 12 U.S. Olympians have played in 347 games and missed just 32. Nine of the USA team members have played in every game or missed just one game to date; only Kevin Love (broken hand in pre-season) and rookie Anthony Davis (concussion and ankle injury) have missed double figure games due to injuries suffered with their NBA teams. In the shorten 2011-12 NBA season, the 11 USA players missed 63 total games.

Currently U.S. gold medalists occupy six of the top seven positions in the NBA scoring statistics. Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, LeBron James and James Harden, respectively, rank first through fifth and and Russell Westbrook lists seventh in points scored. The six players are currently averaging between 30.3 - 21.7 points a game. Additionally, Chris Paul, Westbrook, Deron Williams and James list among the top 10 in assists, while Kevin Love ranks second and Tyson Chandler is 10th in rebounding.

Looking over the efficiency rankings, James, Durant and Bryant rank one-two-three, while Anthony, Harden Paul and Westbrook rank seventh through 10th.

A review shows seven of the 11 Olympians (excluding Davis who is a rookie) averaging more points in 2012-13 than their career average, while eight of the 11 are scoring more or within two points of what they averaged in 2011-12. Seven are shooting better from the field and eight are averaging more minutes than their career averages. Overall, the 12 USA players are averaging 35.92 minutes per game while their career average in total is 34.61.

The summer's success has also carried over for the USA coaching staff. 2012 U.S. Olympic head coach Mike Krzyzewski has his Duke Blue Devils off to a 13-0 start and No. 1 national ranking. U.S. assistant coach Jim Boeheim, who recently moved into the No.2 posItion for all-time wins as a men's division I coach, has led his Syracuse Orange to a 13-1 record and No. 7 ranking, and USA assistant mentor Mike D’Antoni was hired early into the 2012-13 season as head coach of the NBA Los Angeles Lakers.

Below is a comparison of NBA statistics for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team members.