Having Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in your crew is a cheat code.
It was telling throughout the Canadian males’s basketball crew’s harder-than-it-looked 86-79 win Saturday over Greece of their long-awaited opening sport of the 2024 Olympic match that down the stretch, when each possession mattered and when it regarded like Greece would possibly come again and steal what regarded like a sure win proper underneath Canada’s noses, that the very best participant on the ground was the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder star, not Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA MVP and 2021 NBA champion and Finals MVP.
Not that Antetokounmpo wasn’t nice or something. The Milwaukee Bucks star, who one way or the other combines the facility of a freight practice with the agility of a panther, was implausible in Greece’s first Olympics look in 16 years as he led all scorers with 34 factors on 11-of-17 taking pictures whereas muscling his approach to the free throw line the place he transformed 12-of-16 possibilities.
Canada threw all the things it had at him, but it surely didn’t matter. Giannis was Giannising.
Alongside the best way, he fouled out Canada’s finest two perimeter defenders, Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort, and despatched Dwight Powell — Canada’s finest defensive possibility centre — to the bench early with 5 fouls as properly.
Nonetheless, Canada managed the sport, for essentially the most half, apart from a scary couple of stretches within the fourth quarter, which is when Gilgeous-Alexander guided Canada house.
First Greece minimize a Canadian lead that had been as giant as 16 factors early within the third quarter and hovered round double digits for many of the sport right down to 4 early within the fourth, however Canada — with Gilgeous-Alexander’s assist — quelled the risk.
After which — and that is properly issues received a bit scary — Greece minimize a 12-point Canadian lead with 3:24 to play all the best way down to 2 with 1:04 remaining, the worst second coming when Canadian large man Trey Lyles received stripped at centre whereas bringing the ball up towards Greece’s press resulting in dunk in transition for Antetokounmpo.
However in every state of affairs, it was Gilgeous-Alexander who took the reins, made performs and saved issues calm, and in every state of affairs, he did with signature performs which can be 10/10 — or extra, if that’s attainable — when it comes to issue, however which the sleek, six-foot-six guard makes seemingly simply and routinely.
Early within the fourth, with Greece inside 4, Gilgeous-Alexander received his ft within the paint, drawing the defence and whipped a go to a wide-open Dort who nailed the in-rhythm three. Then Gilgeous-Alexander hit a tough step-back three that had the defence reeling, however he by no means appeared for a second off steadiness. Lastly, he drew a foul and made a pair of free throws. It was as if he ordered the 8-0 run on the drive-thru.
In a blink, Canada was up 12.
However Greece saved pushing, answering with a 10-0 run over their very own to chop the result in two with 64 seconds left.
It was then that the 26-year-old, who completed second in NBA MVP voting this previous season, pulled off his most audacious transfer but as he cracked a Greek double crew with a sequence of stop-and-start dribble strikes earlier than lofting a high-arching floater over the fingertips of Antetokounmpo, who had launched and absolutely prolonged his six-foot-11 body because the final line of defence. He couldn’t get excessive sufficient quickly sufficient as Gilgeous-Alexander’s delicate spinning lay-up kissed the glass and fell gently by way of the rim because the Thunder star shrugged and shook his head as if to say, “What’s the massive deal?”
It was a really large deal. The seemingly inconceivable bucket stopped the bleeding and allowed the boys’s crew to begin its first Olympic look in 24 years, and simply the second since 1988, with a vital win in Group A play, becoming a member of Australia — who dealt with No. 2 ranked Spain very comfortably in earlier motion — at 1-0.
A win over Australia on Tuesday morning would nearly guarantee Canada advances to the quarterfinals.
Gilgeous-Alexander completed with 21 factors, seven assists and 5 rebounds towards simply two turnovers. He additionally blocked two pictures and had a steal.
By way of the larger image, he picked up exactly the place he left off in main Canada to their bronze medal on the FIBA Basketball World Cup final summer season, which ought to depart Canada — and Canadians — feeling superb concerning the males’s crew’s possibilities to earn a medal of any color in Paris in about two weeks’ time.
NOTES:
• Denver Nuggets star Jamal Murray is the very best profile of the additions Canada made to its profitable World Cup roster from a summer season in the past, becoming a member of Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, Sacramento Kings ahead Trey Lyles and former Toronto Raptor Khem Birch among the many new faces. Murray is being counted on as a major distinction maker, giving head coach Jordi Fernandez one other elite ball handler and nearer to associate with Gilgeous-Alexander, however Murray should stand up to hurry shortly with a purpose to contribute.
Murray has been dealt with rigorously within the build-up after coping with a number of delicate tissue accidents throughout his season with the Nuggets. He got here off the bench for Fernandez and performed simply 18 minutes. He was 0-for-3 from deep — as a bunch Canada shot simply 8-of-25 (Greece was 9-of-32) — and had three turnovers to associate with three assists. He regarded shaky defensively — fully shedding his man within the weak aspect nook on a last-second inbound go on the finish of the primary half. Greece missed what was a wide-open three, however Murray’s lack of focus was not supreme. When Greece was making its late run it was fuelled by a Murray turnover as he dribbled right into a crowd with out a plan after which was caught flat-footed as Vasilis Toliopoulos — a pleasant participant, however not precisely Kyrie Irving — flew previous him for a lay-up that minimize Canada’s result in 4 with 1:16 to play. You possibly can solely assume Murray — a confirmed playoff performer with an NBA title on his resume — will get his legs underneath him briefly order which is able to make Canada that a lot tougher to defend, however he wasn’t a optimistic issue of their first sport.
• We’ll see if priorities change in accordance with the opponent, but it surely was clear towards Greece that Canadian head coach Jordi Fernandez was prioritizing defence. He began each Dort and Brooks, with Dort harassing over-matched Greek level guard Nick Calathes the complete size of the ground and with Brooks the first defender on Antetokounmpo. And never solely did he begin Dwight Powell over Kelly Olynyk at centre — a transfer he went do within the World Cup final summer season — however his first large off the bench was Lyles, to provide him one other physique to throw on the Greek star. Foul hassle apart, it was a profitable technique as Dort was a game-leading plus-26 in his 18 minutes of courtroom time whereas Brooks was simply behind him at plus-24 in his 24 minutes, helped as he contributed 14 factors and knocked down three triples in 4 makes an attempt.
• RJ Barrett seems to have picked up simply the place he left off whereas taking part in for the Toronto Raptors this season. The six-foot-six wing grew to become a second-generation basketball Olympian Saturday, following within the footsteps of his father, males’s nationwide crew basic supervisor Rowan Barrett, who was a captain on the Steve Nash-led crew that went to Sydney in 2000, and the youthful Barrett did it in fashion. Barrett led Canada with 24 factors on 8-of-13 taking pictures, had three assists and received to the free throw line six instances, making 5. He was forceful in attending to the rim with out over-doing it, moved the ball and moved to get the ball and mainly seemed to be in the identical house he was when he completed the season with the Raptors, taking part in a wise, opportunistic, bodily fashion that matches in simply round good gamers. Good to see.
