By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Lille, France – It was ugly but when all was said and done, Canada got what they deserved after leading from wire to wire.
Despite Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 34 points the final score was 86-79 for the North Americans over Greece.
“Considering the points he scored, our plan didn’t really work, he is one of the best players in the world”, said coach Jordi Fernandez however as his team got the “W” and that is what counts.
“As I said to my players, you won your first game in the Olympics, you are Olympians now, nobody can take that away from you”, added Fernandez.
RJ Barrett tallied a team-high 23 points and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put in 21 points, seven assists, and five rebounds for the team coached by Jordi Fernandez.
Dillon Brooks followed with 14 points, despite fouling out with three minutes left in the Gameday 1 contest of the preliminary round of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Greece’s captain Kostas Papanikolaou added 17 points, including nine with three triples in the first quarter.
The winners set the tone early, leading by 22-9. The team guided by Vassilis Spanoulis trimmed the lead to two (24-22), but Canada built a solid 10-point cushion by halftime (48-38).
Their advantage jumped to 16 points (56-40), but Greece once again fought back by tooth and claw, making it a four-point game (72-68) with seven minutes left.
A big three by Lu Dort was the answer as both teams went scoreless for almost three minutes and one more by Shai pushed the lead back to 10 (78-68).
“We never give up, we are one of the best teams in the world”
On the verge of defeat, Greece came back once more to reduce the deficit to two points after a monster dunk by Giannis with just over one minute on the clock, but Canada held on and went up to 1-0 in pool play.
Still, the effort of Greece and the way they made it a one-possession game in the closing seconds didn’t go unnoticed by coach Vassilis Spanoulis: “We never give up and we are one of the best teams in the world. We are fighting until the end and we are making everyone proud. That’s why we will qualify for the next round because we deserve it”.
There were also some comments about the refs with Fernandez saying that“the game was called fairly, we had the same numbers of free throws and we made more” and Spanoulis adding a little twist: “There was a lot of contacts allowed, both hands were used and it took us some time to adapt in the second half”.
In Gameday 2 of Group B, Canada clashes with Australia and Greece takes on Spain on Tuesday.
Photo credit: FIBA