LILLE (France) - After 24 years, Canada made it back to the Olympics, and their biggest stars made sure to make the comeback memorable. They held off Greece 86-79, closing out the first day of action at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium.
It required a monster effort to slow Giannis Antetokounmpo down. Even though he had 34 points, his big game was not enough for Greece to pick up a win.
Turning point
Canada were the better team in the first half, and when they opened up a 16-point lead early in the second half, it seemed like they were on cruise control. But the Olympics are tough for a reason.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and his teammates refused to back down, crawling back to a single digit deficit before the start of the fourth, and then taking full advantage of Canada's foul trouble - Luguentz Dort, Dwight Powell and Dillon Brooks all fouled out before the end of the game.
With a runaway Antetokounmpo dunk, the gap was down to just two points in the final minute, but Canada turned to their MVP candidate.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander escaped a double team, drove to the right and hit a runner over Giannis to make 82-78 with 42.8 left on the game clock.
Coach Vassilis Spanoulis drew up a play for his superstar, Canada fouled him on his way to the rim, and he made only one-of-two to cut it to -3.
Greece sent Jamal Murray to the line with 15.2 seconds remaining, and the 2023 NBA champ remained ice cold, knocking down both shots to put the game out of Greece's reach.
Game heroes
In 2000, Rowan Barrett was part of the last Canadian team at the Olympics, closing his account with 8 points and 8 rebounds in a Quarter-Finals defeat against France.
Fast forward 24 years, and his son RJ was the first person to score for Canada, continuing the Olympic legacy of the family. He was Canada's most consistent player throughout the game, finishing with 23 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
He had a lot of help from his teammates, too. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 21 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks, while Dillon Brooks collected 14 points before fouling out with three minutes to play.
Stats don't lie
In a closely contested game, it's important to make your shots from the charity stripe. Greece had eight missed free throws, compared to four by Canada, just enough to give the team in red and white a bit of an edge in the closing seconds.
"Both teams shot the same the same amount of free throws, we shot a little bit better, which I think at the end of the day is how we won the game," Canada coach Jordi Fernandez agreed after the game.
Bottom line
Giannis Antetokounmpo almost set a new Greek scoring record in his very first game at the Olympics, scoring 34 points, just two shy of Nikos Eikonomou's 36 from 1996. He was 11-of-17 from the field and 12-of-15 from the line, with 5 rebounds and 2 assists.
But he will need more help from his teammates, as Kostas Papanikolaou (17pts) was the only other player in double digits.
As for Canada, they will need to learn to balance their aggression through the entire team, because their defense was nowhere near as tough with Dort and Brooks compared to without them. But to learn with a win is always a great experience, their first Olympic win in 24 years!
They said
"Giannis was really good tonight, but all the team reacted great in the second half. We tried to set a lot of picks, we tried to set a lot of early picks to avoid the pressure, to carry the ball with the guy not guarded by Dort because he's really good in pressuring the ball. We started the game a bit under pressure, and I don't understand why. The players know that. It took us one half to understand that we have to play Greek basketball, our basketball, to show our character. But this half that we missed it, it was a lot." - Greece head coach Vassilis Spanoulis
"I liked the start, we were very physical, our ball pressure was really good, we were running and moving and obviously, great teams with a lot of experience are gonna punch back, and they did. We allowed a lot of threes in the first half for overhelping, and then we fouled a lot. I give credit to our guys, they fought, they found a way, whoever was the next guy was ready. Lu Dort was +26 and he did an amazing job and made a big shot that helped us win the game. I'm happy with the win. We know that we can be better, we can play better throughout 40 minutes." - coach Fernandez
"The game plan didn't work, as he scored 34 points. The coach did a bad job, the game plan didn't work (laughs). And it doesn't matter now because I've played against him in the NBA, sometimes we won, sometimes we lost, obviously the court is much bigger in the NBA. He's done an amazing job, he made his free throws, so whoever plays him next, they're gonna look at this game and they are gonna be asking themselves 'how do we stop him.' I believe our team with how physical we are, we can be really good defensively." - coach Fernandez on differences in facing Giannis in FIBA environment and the NBA
That's why you have the word team, it's not one guy - RJ Barrett
"That's why you have the word team, it's not one guy. All of us, all together, everybody's got their part to do. Guarding Giannis is not an easy task, Dillon, Lu, Dwight tried their best, you put pressure on him all game long, and it's not an easy task. It's a team, it's all of us, we did our job today." - RJ Barrett, Canada
"They are not gonna quit obviously, and we expected that. We expected them to make their run, and for us, it was just about weathering the storms, kinda sticking to the game plan throughout the ups and downs." - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on how they stayed together when Greece crawled back to -2
Quick notes
Greece have now lost their three most recent games against teams from the Americas at the Olympics
Both teams shot 32 free throws, the last time both teams shot more than 30 was when the United States faced Spain in 2012 (31 FTA for USA, 32 for Spain)
The only player who scored more points than Giannis in his Olympic debut was Luka Doncic, who had 48 points in his first game in 2021
SGA and RJ are the third pair of Canadian teammates with 20+ points in their debut game at the Olympics. The last pair to do it before them also involved a Barrett, RJ's dad Rowan, who had 21 points, right next to Michael Meeks with 27 against Australia in 2000
FIBA