The 2012-13 NBA season in numbers
This NBA year is going great, it’s certainly better than the last 4-5 years. You’ve got the Heat with the second longest winning streak in NBA history ever and hungry for the repeat with LeBron James playing a man possessed and Dwayne Wade supporting him like Robin.
Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan are playing like 25-year-old’s, Kobe becoming the 4th highest scorer ever, Timmay getting up to 13th at the rebound leaders and both putting it up every night.
Kevin Durant & Carmelo Anthony are also lighting it up every night, the crop of fascinating points guards ( Kyrie Irving, Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Westrbook , Steph Curry etc) entertains us day in and day out.
The Rookies has also performed great this season : Dame Lillard is running a well-oiled Portland squad, Anthony Davis with a Per 21.5 proved why he was #1 in this strong draft, Harrison Barnes is dunkin, Bradley Beal & Dion Waiters have taken the team leadership in the absence of franchise players due to injuries and Andre Drummond is menacing.
So here’s a look at some of the most amazing stats this season :
Starting with rookies, i won’t be surprised if the NBA Awards jury unanimously gives the ROTY Award to Dame this year, he averaging 19 pts, 6 asts (the last players to achieve this feat Allen Iverson (1996-97), Damon Stoudamire (1995-96) and yeah Oscar Robertson (1960-61).) and the most amazing stat is that he played in all the games for Portland this season, a feat only a few rookies achieve.
He also passed Stephen Curry’s record for 3-pointers made by a rookie which he set in 2009-10 with 166.
Durant is averaging 28.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 2012-13. The last player to average those numbers over an entire season was David Robinson in 1993-94 and if Durant’s edges his rebounds to 8.0 pg he would only be the tenth player in NBA history ever to average 28-8-4 joining the list with legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, John Havlicek, Michael Jordan, Bob McAdoo, yeah Oscar Robertson and Robinson.
Kevin Durant’s also is on course for a 50-40-90 season i.e 50 percent on field goals, 40 percent from 3 pointers and 90 percent from the free throw line becoming just the 8th player to do so – joining Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Larry Bird, Mark Price, Jose Calderon, Reggie Miller & Steve Kerr and if he wins the scoring title which i seriously doubt - not because he can’t just because he doesn’t care anymore he’s got 3 in a row and Carmelo looks more poised, furthermore Durant also quoted “Carmelo can have the scoring title” so yeah there’s that.
But if he stills gets the scoring title he’ll be the third player to win it 4 in a row and the first ever to do with a 50-40-90 average, now that’s amazing.
Most amazing, Durant will go down as just the second player ever to lead the league in scoring without leading his own team in field goal attempts if he manages to win the scoring crown. Durant takes 17.8 shots per game to Russell Westbrook’s 18.9, something we haven’t seen from a scoring champ since 1954-55, when Philadelphia’s Neil Johnston led the NBA at 22.7 points per game but finished second on his own team in FGAs behind teammate Paul Arizin.
Above James averages have only been matched by 4 players in NBA history ordan once, Larry Bird once, John Havlicek twice … and the incomparable Oscar Robertson five times.
He also averaging a career high 56.3 percent field goal average.
Now we all know he’s gonna be the MVP, no point arguing and by doing this he’ll be the first person since Bill Russell to win 4 MVP’s in five seasons and he also might become the first unanimously MVP because if i don’t see anybody voting any other player over him.
Also, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, 2012-13 will go down as just the third season in league history with two teammates averaging at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists for the season. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen did it in Chicago in 1991-92; John Havlicek and Jo Jo White did it in Bostonway back in 1971-72.
In this season’s double-overtime win over Sacramento, James and Wade became the first pair of teammates to each amass at least 39 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists since Kiki Vandeweghe (51/9/8) and Alex English (47/12/7) did it in Denver’s famed 186-184 loss to Detroit in triple overtime in December 1983. LeBron finished with 40 points, 8 rebounds and 16 assists; D-Wade added 39, 8 and 7.
Rob Hennigan, Orlando Magic‘s 30 year old GM, is on cloud nine right now first he won the 4 team superstar trade when he chose Nicola Vucevic over Andrew Bynum, the latter hasn’t played a single game this season.
Then he got Tobias Harris for JJ Redick who jumped his average from 2.4 ppg to 16.4 ppg in the span of 23 games for the Magic and had 2 30-points effort so far.
Furthermore both these guys achieve a amazing feat against the Bucks last Wednesday night - Nik Vucevic had 30 points and 20 rebounds and Tobias Harris added 30 points and 19 rebounds - the last time two NBA teammates had at least 30 points and 19 rebounds in the same game was Willis Reed (31 points, 21 rebounds) and Walt Bellamy (32 points, 22 rebounds) for the New York Knicks on March 15, 1967.
Nicola is also second in the league in rebounding and just become the third Magic player to reach 30 points, 20 boards following Shaq & Howard but he also did it with 5 assists a feat only achieve by him.
So from the above we know 2 things for sure -
1.Rob Hennigan did a pretty good job.
2. Magic just somehow gets the best center, i mean who would thought that the third best center from a 4-team trade and a deep bench guy from 76ers will go on to have a double-double season.I didn’t ?
There’s no one-dimensional player better than Reggie right now, the 32 year old veteran is 6th in rebounding while averaging 10 minutes less then the top 5 above him, more over his per 48 minutes rebound average is a huge 21.6 rebounds and wait there’s more he is leading the league with nine 20 rebounds game more than twice then second place Tyson Chandler & Dwight Howard (both have 4).
Kobe Bryant now has 118 40 points games in regular NBA season trailing only MJ (173) & Wilt (271), at 34 he is also averaging a career high 6.0 assists per game and has became the oldest player to amassed 2000 points and 4000 assist season.
Kobe also became the second oldest player to have a 40 pint 10 assist game this season at 34, the oldest is Larry Bird at 35.He also became the player with the “Most Points Scored In One State” as he passed Karl Malone’s previous mark 18,180 points for the state of Utah.
What else ? Kobe Bryant passed the 30,000 points mark (youngest player to do so) this season also passing Wilt Chamberlein as the 4th highest ever scorer in NBA history.Next up ? Michael Jordan.
Still, the most amazing stat Kobe Bryant this season is that he is the 1st to play 3,000 minutes at age 34+ since both Jordan & Payton in 2002-03.
Since returning from injury in January, Wall has clearly established himself as the MVP in Washington. In the 33 games Wall missed this year, the Wizards went 5-28, they’ve gone 23-19 since his return and have beaten teams like the Knicks, Nuggets, Rockets, Grizzlies, and Lakers.
He is averaging a nifty 26.8 points, 7.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds in his past 10 games and is demanding to be paid the max contract.
7 : San Antonio’s signing of Aron Baynes gives the Spurs seven players who played in last summer’s London Olympics way more than any other team in the NBA.
20 : Tyson Chandler became the first player to collect exactly 20 rebounds in three straight games since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Elvin Hayes in 1970-71.
41 : The Bulls won a whopping 41 games in a row when scoring at least 100 points — tied for the longest such streak in NBA history
1 : It’s the first time both the Knicks and Nets have had winning records in the same season 1997-98 and only 5th time overall.
Carmelo Anthony tied an NBA record by scoring 40 or more points and converting at least 60 percent of his field-goal attempts in three straight team wins. Four other players reached those thresholds in points and field-goal percentage in three consecutive games all won by their teams: Wilt Chamberlain (in 1961 and 1967), Moses Malone (1982), Adrian Dantley (1982) and Bernard King (1984).
The Clippers had their first ever 50 win season and also won the pacific division title at home court…..against Lakers, well the latter is just cherry on the top.
In coaching Gregg Popovich earned his 900th win this season whereas Rick Aldeman won his 1000th.