27 Jul
    10 Aug 2024

    LeBron elite passing unlocks Puerto Rico puzzle

    3 min to read
    LeBron James' greatness shined through

    LeBron James took over in the second quarter and turned the game around with his elite passing. The USA superstar also jumped to fourth place in the all-time assists list.

    LILLE (France) - Is there anything LeBron James cannot do?

    The 39-year-old superstar changed the game in the second quarter with his elite passing and United States coasted past Puerto Rico to finish group play undefeated.

    LeBron James totaled 10 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists in USA's 104-83 victory over Puerto Rico.

    With USA struggling to deal with the Puerto Ricans, the two-time Olympic gold medalist took over the proceedings in the second quarter as the underdogs had no answer for James' size, power, athleticism and passing skills.

    With 5:37 minutes left in the first half and USA trailing 37-36, James dished out five assists in a 2:36-minute stretch. He contributed four points, dealt another assist and added a dunk for 6 points and 6 assists in USA's 28-8 close to the second quarter.

    James' 8 assists saw him move into fourth place on the all-time charts with 110, moving past Argentina legend Manu Ginobili. Toni Kukoc of Yugoslavia and Croatia is James' next target with 112 assists.

    Most assists all-time at the Olympics

    Rank

    Player

    Team

    Assists

    1

    Sarunas Jasikevicius

    Lithuania

    160

    2

    Sarunas Marciulionis

    Soviet Union - Lithuania

    121

    3

    Toni Kukoc

    Yugoslavia-Croatia

    112

    4

    LeBron James*

    USA

    110

    5

    Manu Ginobili

    Argentina

    107

    6

    Matthew Dellavedova*

    Australia

    100

    7

    Shane Heal

    Australia

    95

    8

    Sun Fengwu

    China

    94

    9

    Andrew Gaze

    Australia

    89

    10

    Facundo Campazzo

    Argentina

    84

    *Active players The assist was introduced as a statistic for the Olympics in 1976.

    LeBron James was not the only player who moved up Olympic all-time top 10 leadersboards as Kevin Durant saw his name move up multiple lists.

    KD is building his olympic legacy
    KD is building his olympic legacy

    Durant collected 11 points with 3 three-points to go with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal.

    By scoring 11 points, Durant moved into eighth place in the all-time scoring list, moving past Sergei Belov of Soviet Union.

    Most points scored all-time at the Olympics

    Rank

    Player

    Team

    Points

    1

    Oscar Schmidt

    Brazil

    1093

    2

    Andrew Gaze

    Australia

    789

    3

    Pau Gasol

    Spain

    649

    4

    Luis Scola

    Argentina

    591

    5

    Wlamir Marques

    Brazil

    537

    6

    Patty Mills*

    Australia

    528

    7

    Manu Ginobili

    Argentina

    523

    8

    Kevin Durant*

    USA

    483

    9

    Sergei Belov

    Soviet Union

    475

    10

    Drazen Petrovic

    Yugoslavia-Croatia

    461

    -

    Drazen Dalipagic

    Yugoslavia

    461

    *Active players

    Durant's one block gave him 17 all time, tying for 10th place with Luis Scola of Argentina and Tunisia's Salah Mejri.

    Most blocks all-time at the Olympics

    Rank

    Player

    Team

    Blocks

    1

    Pau Gasol

    Spain

    47

    2

    Andrei Kirilenko

    Russia

    35

    3

    Rudy Gobert*

    France

    26

    -

    Yao Ming

    China

    26

    5

    Andres Nocioni

    Argentina

    21

    -

    Yi Jianlian

    China

    21

    7

    Nicolas Batum*

    France

    20

    8

    Andrew Bogut

    Australia

    19

    9

    Hamed EHaddadi

    Iran

    18

    10

    Kevin Durant*

    USA

    17

    -

    Luis Scola

    Argentina

    17

    -

    Salah Mejri

    Tunisia

    17

    *Active players

    The block was introduced as a statistic for the Olympics in 2000

    James and Durant together moved up more spots in the all-time games won list. James has helped USA to 24 wins - good for fifth place - and Durant is tied for sixth with 23 wins.

    Most games won all-time at the Olympics

    Rank

    Player

    Team

    Games won

    1

    Gennadi Volnov

    Soviet Union

    29

    -

    Sergei Belov

    Soviet Union

    29

    3

    Carmelo Anthony

    USA

    28

    4

    Kresimir Cosic

    Yugoslavia

    25

    5

    LeBron James*

    USA

    24

    6

    Kevin Durant*

    USA

    23

    -

    Rudy Fernandez*

    Spain

    23

    -

    David Robinson

    USA

    23

    -

    Pau Gasol

    Spain

    22

    10

    Juan Carlos Navarro

    Spain

    21

    -

    Felipe Reyes

    Spain

    21

    -

    Andrew Gaze

    Australia

    21

    -

    Wlamir Marques

    Brazil

    21

    *Active players

    Kevin Durant was already USA Basketball all-time leading scorer at the Olympics but in this game, he also passed Carmelo Anthony as USA all-time leading rebounder at the Games.

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