With just three games in the books and extremely uneven schedules, these Olympic stats aren’t terribly meaningful. They won’t tell us a lot about future performance, but it is still fun to take a look at how players have performed thus far.

PctMin = Percentage of Minutes

ORtg = Dean Oliver statistic for points per 100 possessions, assigning credit to teammates for assists and offensive rebounds

PctPoss = Percentage of Possession’s used when on the floor. Taking more than 20% of the shots is aggressive, less than 20% is passive.

Group A

The USA offense is just unstoppable right now. Tyson Chandler’s ORtg is 144.6 and that’s eighth on Team USA. The minutes distribution is pretty even. Kobe Bryant is ready to play if needed, but for now he has been content to be the greatest benchwarmer of all time. Looking for a ball-hog? Russell Westbrook comes the closest, taking up 28% of the team’s possessions when on the floor. 

One of the most amusing visual images of the tournament so far was seeing San Antonio Spurs backcourt mates Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker face each other. Sadly, the two guards did not defend each other (at least while I was watching.) Both were too vital on offense to expend much energy on defense. Parker led his team to an upset win with 17 points and five assists. And Ginobili scored 26 points in the loss. Ginobili has had better efficiency stats in the tournament so far, but I’m sure he would rather have the head-to-head win.

The big black hole for Argentina is Andre Nocioni. Nocioni is now 0-for-8 from three point range and his poor shooting has been the weak link in an otherwise dominant Argentina offense. 

Reports of France’s demise were apparently exaggerated. While they did look terrible in the exhibition schedule, injuries were the likely explanation. Back-to-back wins against Lithuania and Argentina show that with a healthy Tony Parker, this team is dangerous. Portland fans should be happy. The Trailblazers just re-signed Nicolas Batum to a large contract, and he’s been the most efficient player for France so far. 

Lithuania is attempting to rely on its veteran Euroleague stars, but so far they haven’t performed. Rimantas Kaukenas has started every game, but got in foul trouble against both Argentina and France. And Sarunas Jasikevicius has been even worse, shooting a miserable 33% with 11 turnovers in 60 minutes of game time. When you are winning, they call it “great balance”. When you are losing, they say you don’t have a star.

As much as I fawned over Nigeria’s defense against Tunisia on Sunday, when you give up 150 points, even to a dominant US squad, you no longer get credit for playing defense. Since you probably don’t care at this point, I’m just going to list the players with starters minutes for Nigeria and Tunisia. 

Mourad El Mabrouk’s three-point shooting has been the rare bright spot for Tunisia. 

Group B

How much have injuries to Juan Carlos Navarro and Ricky Rubio hurt Spain? Well, Sergio Llull is playing major minutes at one of the guard slots. Llull is shooting 24% and he has more turnovers than assists through three games. 

Vitaly Fridzon hit the buzzer-beating game winning three on Thursday for Russia, but give Alexey Schved credit for leading the comeback. Schved has 25 assists through three games and his 30% usage rate reflects the fact that the Russian offense runs through him. Minnesota Timberwolves fans should rejoice as both Schved and Kirilenko will join the team next year. 

Fran Fraschilla was raving about Marcelinho Huertas when Brazil played a competitive exhibition game against the US last month. But while his passing has been magnificent (21 assists through 3 games), and his free throw rate has been solid, he has made only 13 of his 36 shots from the floor. Meanwhile, Anderson Varejao has been a monster on the offensive glass contributing to his sold offensive efficiency. 

Mathew Dellavedova is the most high profile returning college player in the Olympic games. But while Dellavedova has acquitted himself quite nicely due to some excellent passing, he has been a bit of a reluctant shooter so far. Patrick Mills on the other hand, has not been reluctant to call his own number. Mills was in a 1-14 slump from deep, but broke out of it by making 4 of 8 threes against China. 

At 0-3, China faces an uphill battle to make the medal round, but you certainly can’t blame Yi Jianlian. Yi is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per game in the tournament so far. He has been efficient and he’s been a high volume shooter for the Chinese squad. 

Great Britain basketball has now suffered two heart-breaking losses, losing by 5 to Brazil, and 1 to Spain. And with Dan Clark and Joel Freeland knocking down all those late game threes, it is a shame Britain failed to foul Spain and force one last possession. Joel Freeland has clearly been the most reliable offensive weapon for the British squad as seen by his 110.1 ORtg. Pops Mensah-Bonsu (who led George Washington to a 26-1 record and the NCAA tournament in 2006) did most of his damage in the opener when he got to the free throw line 16 times. He’s been much quieter in the two close losses.