Canada seek their first men’s basketball Olympic medal since clinching silver back in 1936 and know they must sustain their excellent group stage play to do so. The bulk of the focus surrounds Team USA for obvious reasons but as RJ Barrett and Dillon Brooks have played important support roles, Canada’s star guard leads by example – Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Acid test time against the hosts
France vs. Canada on Tuesday, tip-off at 5pm BST
Olympic basketball quarterfinal, winner plays Germany/Greece on Thursday
- Seizing initiative: Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 19 points and four assists in three Olympic games thus far as Canada topped Group A beyond perennial contenders Spain and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Greece
- Bullish! “We have a lot of talent and know that, all want to win… so we’re giving up whatever it takes to get to the final goal. We’ll be ready for whoever we see,” the 26-year-old guard told NBC’s Mike Tirico on Saturday
- Quarter-final time: Spurs’ Rookie of the Year phenom Victor Wembanyama and a motivated Rudy Gobert are their upcoming threats as they face the host nation in an elimination game to kick off finals week
SHAI Gilgeous-Alexander finished second in this past season’s NBA MVP voting, and unlike Nuggets star guard Jamal Murray, hasn’t left his influential matchwinning touch Stateside as Canada brace themselves for a tricky test against France next.
Coached by Spain’s Jordi Fernandez, who was hired as the new Brooklyn Nets head coach in April after 15 years’ experience leaguewide across multiple roles – player development, assistant coach, most recently the second-in-command in Sacramento – they want to do better than their FIBA World Cup bronze medal.
They beat the USA, albeit a markedly different squad to the stacked one Steve Kerr finds himself working with this summer, to that distinction twelve months ago and it makes sense they’ll have to do it again if they’re to touch gold this weekend.
“They play to their strengths, obviously very talented and deep. You almost have to make no mistakes and play a perfect game against them,” the 26-year-old said on the topic of Team USA, who are said to be bracing themselves defensively for what’s to come against Brazil in one of the other quarter-finals (8.30pm BST).
SGA played a pivotal role in the Thunder’s eventual run to the Western Conference semifinals, narrowly losing in six games to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks – who were ultimately second best to Boston in the NBA Finals the following month.
Andrew Nembhard, who last month inked a three-year, $59m deal to stay in Indiana, went one step further alongside Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam as Rick Carlisle’s men overachieved expectations in reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.
After limited touches in their first two group games, the 24-year-old produced an efficient 18-point display in 21 minutes against Spain and it’ll be interesting to see how he’s utilised as France’s defensive attention will be fixed upon SGA/Barrett.
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes hyperlinked
Mo and Sports 