Basketball News: Team Canada beats Greece 86-79. RJ Barrett was impressed with his team’s play guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Olympic game.
The most famous men’s basketball team in Canadian history came out on top, with RJ Barrett (23 points, 8-of-13 shooting from the field) making shots and crossing the line en route to a blistering first quarter and an early double-digit lead. But despite his best efforts and despite all his NBA talent, Canada could not beat the Greek Freak.
If there’s a weakness in the Canadian team, it’s its lack of size, with Trey Lyles and Kelly Olynyk — both power forwards in an ideal world — the only true bigs on the roster. Neither they nor Dillon Brooks had an answer for Giannis, who sprinted to the basket like a force of nature even though he had to outrun three or four defenders along the way. Antetokounmpo scored 34 points and had 10 kills; his other teammates, however, scored a combined 45 and 17 points.
“That’s why it’s the word ‘team.’ It’s not just one person, it’s all of us together. Guarding Giannis is not an easy job. You’re pressing him all game. It’s a team, it’s all of us, and we did our best job today,” Barrett said of guarding Giannis.
On the other side, Greece managed to disrupt the beautiful Canadian machine, taking advantage of a slight whistle to hold SGA and Co. to 43% shooting from the field on the night. Every time it seemed like Canada was finally ready to pull away, Giannis would come up with a transition or Konstantinos Papanikolaou (17 points, 3-for-6 from deep) would knock down a big shot.
Canada led by eight or nine for most of the third period, but Greece cut the deficit to four midway through the fourth. Three-and-outs from Lu Dort and Gilgeous-Alexander finally seemed to settle things, but another late Greek attack cut the lead to two with less than a minute left. At that point, SGA did what it did last NBA season: delivered in the clutch.
Article Tag: RJ Barrett, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Olympics
Published by Ligaolahraga.com on https://www.ligaolahraga.com/basket/rj-barrett-terkesan-permainan-kanada-dalam-jaga-giannis-antetokounmpo
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