CANADA led from start to finish but they still had to shake off a stubborn Greece squad late to take an 86-79 win and open its promising Men’s basketball tournament campaign in the 2024 Paris Olympics on a high inside Pierre Mauroy Stadium in France.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for Canada with a solid all-around performance with 21 points, seven assists and two blocks as the No. 7-ranked team in the world looked every bit as fearsome with most of their NBA stars on their roster.
The Canadians looked like they were about to finally put the Greeks away as Lu Dort and Gilgeous-Alexander conspired on an 8-0 run which turned a tight 72-68 ball game to an 80-68 spread with 3:24 to game, but Giannis Antetokounmpo wouldn’t go down without a fight.
The former NBA MVP and champion powered a Greek back as they responded with 10 unanswered points capped by his dunk to trim Canada’s lead to just two, 80-78 with just 1:04 remaining in the game.
Alexander, though, was clutch as always as he calmly attacked the solid Greek defense and hit a tough floater over Antetokounmpo with 42 seconds remaining left to give the Canadians some breathing space.
A split from “The Greek Freak” from the line, coupled with Jamal Murray’s free throw on the other end sealed the win for the North Americans.
RJ Barrett top scored for Canada with 23 points as they led by as many as 16 points but couldn’t just finish off the very tough European side.
Dillon Brooks, one of Antetokounmpo’s main defenders all night, added 14 points before fouling out to help Canada move to second place of Group A with a +7, running second to Australia who beat Spain by 12 points earlier in the night.
Antetokounmpo had 34 points for Greece while Kostas Papanikolaou finished with 17 points as they dropped to third in the group ahead of Spain.
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