Gilgeous-Alexander leads Canadians to victory over Greece – Sportsnet.ca

Having Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on your team is a cheat code.

It was telling during the Canadian men’s basketball team’s tougher-than-it-seemed 86-79 victory Saturday over Greece in its long-awaited opening game of the 2024 Olympic tournament that down the stretch, when every possession mattered and when it looked like Greece might come back and steal what seemed like a sure victory from right under Canada’s nose, that the best player on the court was the Oklahoma City Thunder star, not Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA MVP and 2021 NBA champion and Finals MVP.

It’s not that Antetokounmpo wasn’t great or anything. The Milwaukee Bucks star, who somehow combines the power of a freight train with the agility of a panther, was fantastic in Greece’s first Olympic appearance in 16 years, as he led all scorers with 34 points on 11-of-17 shooting while driving his way to the free-throw line, where he converted 12 of 16 opportunities.

Canada threw everything they had at him, but it didn’t matter. Giannis was Giannizing.

Along the way, he fouled out Canada’s two best perimeter defenders, Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort, and sent Dwight Powell (Canada’s best defensive option at centre) to the bench early with five fouls as well.

Still, Canada controlled the game, for the most part, except for a couple of scary stretches in the fourth quarter, when Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada home.

First, Greece cut a Canadian lead that had been as large as 16 points early in the third quarter and hovered in double digits for most of the game to four early in the fourth, but Canada, with the help of Gilgeous-Alexander, stifled the threat.

And then, well, things got a little scary, as Greece cut a 12-point Canadian lead with 3:24 left to two with 1:04 remaining, the worst moment coming when Canadian center Trey Lyles was stripped from the center while carrying the ball against Greece’s pressure, leading to Antetokounmpo dunking in transition.

But in every scenario, it was Gilgeous-Alexander who took the reins, made plays and kept things calm, and in every scenario, he did it with signature plays that are 10/10 — or higher, if that’s possible — in terms of difficulty, but that the smooth, six-foot-six guard makes seemingly with ease and routinely.

Early in the fourth, with Greece within four points, Gilgeous-Alexander drove into the paint, drew the defense and passed to a wide-open Dort who sank a three-pointer in rhythm. Gilgeous-Alexander then hit a difficult step-back three that staggered the defense, but he never seemed to lose his balance. Finally, he drew a foul and sank a pair of free throws. It was as if he had ordered the 8-0 run from the drive-thru.

In the blink of an eye, Canada was up 12 points.

But Greece kept pressing and responded with a 10-0 run to cut the lead to two with 64 seconds remaining.

That’s when the 26-year-old, who finished second in NBA MVP voting last season, made his boldest move yet by beating a Greek double-team with a series of stop-and-start dribble moves before launching a high, arcing lob over the fingertips of Antetokounmpo, who had launched himself and fully extended his 6-foot-1 frame as the last line of defense. He couldn’t get high enough fast enough as Gilgeous-Alexander’s smooth spinning layup kissed the glass and dropped softly through the rim as the Thunder star shrugged and shook his head as if to say, “What’s the problem?”

It was a major achievement. The seemingly impossible basket stopped the bleeding and allowed the men’s team to begin its first Olympic appearance in 24 years, and just its second since 1988, with a crucial victory in Group A, joining Australia (which had easily dispatched No. 2-ranked Spain in the previous action) at 1-0.

A win over Australia on Tuesday morning would all but ensure Canada advances to the quarterfinals.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds against just two turnovers. He also blocked two shots and stole a ball.

More broadly, he picked up exactly where he left off in leading Canada to its bronze medal at the FIBA ​​Basketball World Cup last summer, which should leave Canada — and Canadians — feeling pretty good about the men’s team’s chances of winning a medal of any color in Paris in about two weeks.

GRADES:

• Denver Nuggets star Jamal Murray is the most notable addition Canada has made to its successful World Cup roster from last summer, joining Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, Sacramento Kings forward Trey Lyles and former Toronto Raptor Khem Birch among the new faces. Murray is expected to be a significant difference-maker, giving head coach Jordi Fernandez another elite ball-handler and finisher to pair with Gilgeous-Alexander, but Murray will need to get up to speed quickly to contribute.

Murray has been handled carefully in the buildup to the game after dealing with multiple soft-tissue injuries during his season with the Nuggets. He came off the bench for Fernandez and played just 18 minutes. He was 0-for-3 from 3-point range (Canada shot just 8-for-25 (Greece was 9-for-32)) and had three turnovers to go along with three assists. He looked shaky defensively, completely losing his man in the weak-side corner on a last-second entry pass late in the first half. Greece missed what was a wide-open 3-pointer, but Murray’s lack of focus wasn’t ideal. When Greece was making its late run, it was jump-started by a Murray turnover as he pushed through a crowd without a plan and then was blindsided by Vasilis Toliopoulos (a good player, but not exactly Kyrie Irving) who got past him for a layup that cut Canada’s lead to four with 1:16 left. One can only assume Murray, a proven playoff player with an NBA title on his resume, will bounce back in short order, making Canada that much tougher to defend, but he wasn’t a positive factor in his first game.

• We’ll see if priorities change depending on the opponent, but against Greece it was clear that Canadian coach Jordi Fernandez prioritized defense. He lined up Dort and Brooks, with Dort harassing Greek guard Nick Calathes all over the court and Brooks as Antetokounmpo’s primary defender. And not only did he put Dwight Powell at center instead of Kelly Olynyk (a move he made at the World Cup last summer), but his first center off the bench was Lyles, to give him another body to throw at the Greek star. Foul trouble aside, it was a winning strategy, as Dort led the game with a plus-26 in his 18 minutes on the court, while Brooks was right behind him with a plus-24 in his 24 minutes, which helped as he contributed 14 points and hit three 3-pointers on four attempts.

• RJ Barrett appears to have picked up the pace he left off when he was playing for the Toronto Raptors this season. The 6-foot-4 forward became a second-generation Olympian basketball player on Saturday, following in the footsteps of his father, men’s national team general manager Rowan Barrett, who captained the Steve Nash-coached team that went to Sydney in 2000, and the younger Barrett did it in style. Barrett led Canada with 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting, had three assists and got to the free-throw line six times, scoring five. He was forceful getting to the rim without overdoing it, moved the ball and moved to get it and basically looked to be in the same space as when he finished the season with the Raptors, playing a smart, opportunistic and physical style that easily adapts to good players. It’s good to see.