Team Canada finalizes roster before falling to Team USA, 86-72

The best collection of players the Canadian Men’s team has ever assembled was not enough to get past USA’s group of All-Stars.

teaWith the Paris Olympics less than 3 weeks away and the field of 12 countries now set, each team will finalize their rosters (more on this below) and play some exhibition games. As luck would have it (or clever scheduling), the Canada vs. USA rivalry can add ‘Men’s basketball’ to the list alongside Women’s hockey and Women’s soccer!

The USA Basketball Showcase kicked off with a rematch against a Canadian squad that defeated them for bronze at the FIBA World Cup. (One victory does not make this a rivalry, but this is my article and I can call it a rivalry if I damn well please!)

Both teams were rusty but the Americans, filled with All-Stars across the roster, were able to tap into its embarrassment of riches off the bench to secure an 86-72 victory over the Canadians in front of an energetic T-Mobile Arena crowd in Las Vegas.

The US were led by its star pair of Anthonys off the bench. Anthony Edwards led the team with 13 points and Anthony Davis filled the stat sheet with 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks in only 19 minutes of action.

RJ Barrett scored 12 points, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was fairly quiet with only 10 points. Dillon Brooks, who was booed every time he touched the ball, also chipped in with 10 points.

The Americans started with Steph Curry, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, LeBron James, and Joel Embiid. Canada countered with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, and Dwight Powell.

With training camp starting less than a week ago, the lack of chemistry was more evident with the US as they missed their first 6 field goal attempts and racked up 8 first-quarter turnovers. Meanwhile, Canada, whose roster is largely the same as last year’s Olympic-qualifying squad from the FIBA World Cup — capped by a bronze medal victory over the US — jumped out to an 11-1 lead.

With the starters looking out of sorts, Head Coach, Steve Kerr, turned to his All-Star-laden bench for a spark. Edwards, the self-proclaimed number-one option, backed up his talk and woke up the offense. Tyrese Haliburton led all players with 6 assists and 4 steals. Bam Adebayo was a force in the paint on both ends of the floor. Jayson Tatum, fresh off signing the largest contract extension in NBA history, showed no signs of rust after leading the Boston Celtics to the championship.

By halftime, USA had turned an early 10-point deficit into a comfortable 41-33 halftime lead.

The second half followed the same script from the middle of the first quarter: when the starters were on the floor — teams matching each other shot-for-shot and stop-for-stop — while the American bench overpowered the Canadian reserves.

Just as Canada’s defensive cohesion gave them the early lead, the US team’s length and versatility kept the Canadians from mounting any comeback. Canada shot a mediocre 33.8% from the field and 21.2% from beyond the arc (7-for-33). After the game, Head Coach, Jordi Fernandez called out the team’s performance. “It’s not about the win or the loss….I didn’t like the way we played.” Fernandez added, “33 [attempts from three] is probably not terrible in FIBA, if we’re able to get 40-plus [attempts], 30 of them have to be catch and shoot. Our guys just were not in the right spot.”

The logic makes sense. Canada will be undersized against most opponents at the Olympics. But there’s no denying the talent in the backcourt. With SGA, Murray, Nembhard, Barrett, and Alexander-Walker, the Canadians have the firepower that other countries would dream about. Getting positive production from the backcourt will go a long way in helping Canada’s frontcourt, which did well to keep the rebounding totals close (53-48 in favour of the US). The Americans also finished with 9 blocks to Canada’s 1.

It may have only been an exhibition game, one where either team has many kinks to work out, but one thing’s for sure: Dillon Brooks is already

Earlier in the day, Team Canada finalized its roster. With players like Zach Edey and Oshae Brissett removing themselves from camp last week, the initial invitee list of 20 was already down to 15. Here are the 12 that will represent Canada at the Paris Olympics — easily the best collection of talent this country has ever produced:

• Nickeil Alexander-Walker
• RJ Barrett
• Khem Birch
• Dillon Brooks
• Luguentz Dort
• Melvin Ejim
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Trey Lyles
• Jamal Murray
• Andrew Nembhard
• Kelly Olynyk
• Dwight Powell

The final cuts — Mfiondu Kabengele, Phil Scrubb, Thomas Scrubb — will remain with Team Canada throughout the team’s tune-up games. All 3 played garbage time minutes during the fourth quarter of last night’s game.

It cannot be stressed enough how talented this team is. The last time the Men’s team qualified for the Olympics was 2000, led by Steve Nash, Todd McCulloch, and……no other NBA players. Last season, there were a record 28 Canadians on opening day rosters. Players like Shaedon Sharpe, Benedict Mathurin, Andrew Wiggins (gulp), and Zach Edey could all find their way onto future roster iterations. The future is bright for Canadian basketball, but so is the present!

Canada’s next exhibition game will be on July 19th against the Olympics host country, France.