By Gura Garcia
28 Jul 2024, 08:22 AM EDT
Men’s basketball at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is not The team from Greece and Canada have been disappointing in every way, and this was made even clearer by yesterday’s match between the national teams of Greece and Canada, which closed the first session of matches of the Olympic Games. The level shown by the aforementioned teams indicates that the Spanish team, the next rival for both teams in the group stage, will not have an easy path at all to qualify for the next round of the quarter-finals.
Canada finally prevailed against Greece with a score of 86-79, in a match that The game was decided in the final minutes of the game. Canada took a 10/12 point lead that they managed to maintain and play to take the victory. Even when Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Greece was stalking Jordi Fernández’s team, the North American team knew how to manage the points advantage in their favor.
A very intense and explosive match
Greece fought and fought until the end, coming back with great performances from Giannis and Toliopoulos even managed to get two points behind on the scoreboard, to the point that Canada was forced to require the talent and services of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA point guard, Shai Gilgleous-Alexander, who brought out his magic to achieve a huge basketfirst by getting past two opponents outside the zone and then avoiding a block by Milwaukee Bucks star player Anteto near the rim.
The basket made by the Thunder point guard sealed Canada’s victory, the first in his Olympic debut in Paris 2024 and the beginning of the road to achieving the long-awaited gold medal.
Greece was better without Giannis at times
As strange as it may sound, Greece enjoyed much of the match. Without Antetokounmpo on the court, who was playing at a very good level and was causing a lot of damage to the Canadian red team. Without Giannis on the court, Greece managed to come back on a couple of occasions, but the reality is that without the Bucks player, Greece is less competitive and has shortcomings that other teams know how to take advantage of and exploit to the maximum. The NBA player finished the game with a total of 34 points with 11 of 17 field goals and above all it conditioned Canada’s defense, which tried to protect its rim against the two-time NBA MVP with multiple assists, seeking to stop him as much as possible.
The one who did not have his best game was the Denver Nuggets point guard, Jamal Murray, who was a player of whom much was expected but whose production was low against Greece, contributed a total of 8 points with 0 of 3 in triples and looked out of the cohesive game of the rest of the Canadian players, perhaps even a little out of shape.
In Canada Shai was not the best scorer, despite having been one of the players Key points of the match. Canada’s top scorer was Barrett with 23 points. The Thunder player had 21 and Dillion Brooks concluded the actions with 14 units in their favor. The Greeks, apart from Antetothey had a great Papanicolaou with 17 points in his pocket.
An early final
Greece now crosses the path of the Spanish national team, led by Sergo Llull, Rudy Fernández and company, on Tuesday, in what many have described as a match that will be the first ‘final’ for coach Sergio Scariolo’s team in their bid to reach the quarter-finals of Paris 2024.
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