JAKARTA (Indonesia) – Canada once again proved it is a nightmare to play against on both ends of the court in a 128-73 win over Lebanon.
Canada scored in every way, helping each other with a new FIBA Basketball World Cup single-game record of 44 assists. That led them to victory on 50-of-70 shooting from the field.
Turning point: Lebanon’s five starting players managed to keep their distance from the key Canadian players early in the game. But that quickly changed. Trae Bell-Haynes and company shot big and went 8-of-10 from long range to post a crucial 28-10 run.
Dillon Brooks closed the first half with a three-pointer, then blew his trademark kisses to the crowd as Canada finished the first half 11-of-18 from long range. They never looked back.
TCL Game Player: RJ Barrett found his touch after scoring 5 points on the opening day against France, leading the team with 17 points and 3 assists. The crowd in Jakarta really appreciated Barrett’s game in the open court and it was a complete team performance with nine of the 11 active players scoring in double figures.
Omari Spellman was ready to show his talent from the outside again as Lebanon’s top scorer with 16 points.
The statistics don’t lie: Canada played at a pace that was too fast for Lebanon to handle. Their game-high 44 assists came on open shots, while Lebanon was on the wrong side of the scale with a 19 assist to 22 turnover ratio.
The main thing is: Canada recorded their second win by at least 30 points. But their place in the second round will only be secured if Latvia beats France today. Latvia will try to stop Canada on Tuesday.
Lebanon look unlucky to be in Group H, aka the ‘Group of Death’. A solid performance against France could really help them achieve their goals going forward.
Comment: “They punished us for every mistake. You can see that they got 41 points from our turnovers. We played against a team of a different level. In the first game, Latvia shot 51% from 3-point range against us, today Canada was at 60.” We need to minimize unforced errors and become better defensively. Our goal is to finish the next game against France in the best possible way. Then we have two more games to get the best place in Asia for the Olympics. – Jad El Hajj, head coach of Lebanon
“We know we are in the ‘Group of Death’. We have three big contenders for the Cup. We know it will be difficult for us. We just try to limit the mistakes as much as possible, so when we get to that point, which is the most important thing for us, we can show up and perform well.” – Karim Zenoun, Lebanon
“We played together and shared the basketball. 43 assists on 15 turnovers is a World Cup record. It shows that sharing is a caring thing and these guys are willing to play the right way, playing with passes. Sometimes in games like this, teams have a tendency to go it alone and dribble the ball too much. I’m proud of these guys for doing it the right way. Especially Trae here. Not only was he willing to catch and shoot, but he also shared the ball with 8 assists. Happy to be at the same table with him here.” – Jordi Fernandez, head coach of Canada
“I’m very happy because we kept the momentum from the game against France. We talked about making sure there’s no letup. We did a good job, the confidence of the players was very high. You could see that everyone played well and I hope we can continue to do that. Throughout camp, we talked about touches, passes and three-point shots after touching the paint. Our offense starts with guys getting in the paint and playing. Doing that at a very high level.” – Trae Bell-Haynes, Canada
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