JAKARTA RAYA, INDONESIA — The Canadian men’s national team improved to 3-0 in group play on Tuesday evening, rallying from a double-digit deficit in the first half for an easy 101-75 victory.
“We started slow, they blitzed us, but we kept our composure and were able to fight through it and we got a dub,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to reporters after the game. He once again led the Canadians in scoring with 27 points, adding six assists and six rebounds.
16 of Gilgeous-Alexander’s points came in the third quarter, and RJ Barrett scored 22 points on four made three-pointers.
Despite the large margin of victory, Canada, playing for the second consecutive game without Lou Dort who is dealing with soreness, was tested early on by Latvia’s ball movement and three-point shooting, the former leaving the Canadians scrambling on defense while the latter gave them an early lead. Jordi Fernandez called a quick timeout just 1:48 into the game, after Arturs Kurucs, the younger brother of former Brooklyn Net Rodions Curucs, hit a wing three-pointer coming off a screen that gave Latvia a 9-5 lead. Canada was just 2-for-10 from three-point range in the first quarter, and trailed 23-13 after one.
Things looked particularly worrisome nearly midway through the second quarter when Davis Bertans scored on a layup that put Latvia up 32-20. With Dillon Brooks in foul trouble with three fouls, Canada went on a sorely needed 10-2 run, aided by Latvian head coach Luca Biachi’s technical foul with 53.2 seconds on the clock, which allowed Canada to get within two, 40-38. With 32 seconds remaining, Kelly Olynyk hit a three-pointer, giving the Canadians a 41-38 lead, and moments later Melvin Ejim rebounded a Kristers Zoriks miss and outleted to RJ Barrett for a layup off the glass at the buzzer. Despite shooting just 38 percent in the first half, Canada took a 43-42 lead going into the break, ending the half on a 20-7 run.
In the third quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander provided the same stellar play and leadership that he has all tournament long to this point, continuing to prove that he is his country’s best player capable of putting the team on his back.
To the tune of 16 points in the third, Gilgeous-Alexander was at his best, hitting midrange pull-ups and getting out in transition. Part of his display was a 10-2 run to start the quarter, in which he hit a three-pointer to give Canada a 48-42 lead, and then dunked the ball off an outlet pass from Olynyk, a play which Gilgeous-Alexander started by poking the ball away.
Though it looked like the Canadians would suddenly roll to victory, Latvia stayed close. Rodions Kurucs scored consecutive layups as part of a mini 6-0 Latvia run, trimming the lead to three, 55-52, with 4:26 to go in the third.
Then, Gilgeous-Alexander asserted himself some more.
The first team All-NBA performer from this past season hit a variety of shots displaying his offensive skill set. A midrange fadeaway to put Canada up three, a transition finger roll, a left-handed layup and a pull-up jump shot, all of which helped Canada take a 67-57 lead into the fourth.
The team pulled away at the start of the final frame, with consecutive three-pointers from Olynyk, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Phil Scrubb, along with a transition layup from Barrett, all part of an extended run that gave Canada a 19-point, 80-61 lead. Gilgeous-Alexander, for his final points of the game, hit a pull-up, giving the team a 86-66 lead with 3:37 remaining, allowing them to cruise to the 101-75 win.
The identity of the group, Gilgeous-Alexander believes, is their defensive prowess and ability to get out in transition, something the Canadians did well in the second half, outscoring Latvia 58-33, scrambling on defense and limiting three-point opportunities.
Along with the outputs from Gilgeous-Alexander (10-for-17 from the field) and Barrett (9-for-14), Olynyk scored 15 and Alexander-Walker 14, while the team shot 50 percent as a whole.
For Latvia, who shot 43 percent from the field for the game, Andrejs Grazulis scored a team-high 16, while Rodions Kurucs scored 14. NBA veteran Davis Bertans, whose brother Dairis missed the game with a hamstring injury, added seven points.
Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, is the first player in tournament history to register at least 10/5/5 over the first three games. Per Toronto Raptors’ stats person Keerthika Uthayakumar, Gilgeous-Alexander is also the fourth Canadian with multiple 25-point games at a single men’s World Cup. Carl Ridd was the first to do it, in 1954, while former Raptors’ assistant coach Jay Triano did it in 1986 and current Raptor television analyst Leo Rautins achieved the same in 1978.
“I work pretty hard”, said Gilgeous-Alexander about what allows him to be the player that he is. “I try to play my hardest out there and trust my work.”
Canada is 3-0 and advancing to the second round for the first time since 1998. It is also their first outright group win all-time in the tournament. They will have two days off before the second round, when they will play Friday, Sept. 1, and again on Sunday, Sept. 3. They will face either Spain, Brazil, or Cote D’Ivoire in those games.
“It will be a good two days off,” continued Gilgeous-Alexander. “We have stuff to get better from, with this game especially. We’ll use these two days to get better and get ready for the next one.”
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