It was nearly derailed by a near-superhuman effort from Giannis Antetokounmpo, but in the end Canada's depth — and some big-time shot-making down the stretch from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — got its quest for a first-ever gold medal off to a winning start over Greece by a score of 86-79.
The most hyped men's basketball team in Canadian history came flying out of the gates, with RJ Barrett (23 points, 8-of-13 from the field) knocking down shots and driving past closeouts en route to a monster first quarter and an early double-digit lead. But despite its best effort, and despite all its NBA talent, Canada simply couldn't put the Greek Freak away.
If there's a weakness to be found with team Canada, it's their lack of size, with Trey Lyles and Kelly Olynyk — both power forwards in an ideal world — the only true bigs on the roster. Neither they nor Dillon Brooks had any answer for Giannis, barreling his way to the basket like a force of nature even if he had to get through three or four defenders on the way. Antetokounmpo put up 34 points and drew 10 fouls; the rest of his teammates, by contrast, put up 45 and 17 combined.
"That's why you have the word 'team'," Barrett said about guarding Giannis. "It's not one guy, it's all of us all together. Guarding Giannis is not an easy task. You put pressure on him all game long. It's a team, it's all of us, and we did our job today."
On the other end, Greece successfully mucked up Canada's typically beautiful machine, taking advantage of a lenient whistle to hold SGA and Co. to 43% shooting from the field on the night. Every time it seemed like Canada was finally ready to pull away, Giannis would come up with a transition bucket or Konstantinos Papanikolaou (17 points, 3-of-6 from deep) would knock down a big shot. Canada led by eight or nine for much of the third, only for Greece to cut it to four midway through the fourth. Back-to-back 3s from Lu Dort and Gilgeous-Alexander seemed to finally put things to bed, but one more late Greece run shaved the lead down to two again with less than a minute to play. At which point, SGA did what he did throughout this past NBA season: Deliver in the clutch.
Another Giannis free throw made it a one-possession game with just over 30 seconds left, but Jamal Murray calmly sank two free throws on the other end to finally salt the game away.
Despite being frustrated at times with the officiating, Gilgeous-Alexander turned in his usually efficient stat line, with 21 points and seven assists on just 10 shot attempts and a 9-of-10 showing from the line. Still, he was focused on ways to improve moving forward after the game.
"Just closing the game a little bit better defensively," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Offensively we got good looks down the stretch, we just didn't make them."
Dort and Dillon Brooks were big for Canada as well, combining to go 5-for-8 from behind the arc.
"We've been talking about it for a month to get the first game," Brooks said. "The first game's the most important."
Next up for Canada is a matchup with fellow Group A victor Australia on Tuesday, July 30, while Greece faces off against Spain desperately needing a win.