Canada holds off Giannis, Greece to win Olympic opener

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and RJ Barrett led the way as Canada survived Giannis Antetokounmpo’s monster 34-point performance to win 86-79 over Greece on Saturday to open group play at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The contest was Canada’s first Olympic men’s basketball game in 24 years.

The Canadians never trailed in the matchup but also didn’t pull away on the scoreboard, and a lead that ballooned to 16 points in the third quarter was cut down to just two in the final minutes.

However, Gilgeous-Alexander’s clutch bank shot with 42 seconds remaining sealed the deal for Canada.

The Oklahoma City Thunder star scored 21 points in the contest, adding five rebounds and seven assists. Still, Barrett paced the squad, with the Toronto Raptors forward recording 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting.

After missing last year’s World Cup, Denver Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray played 18 minutes off the bench for Canada but finished a team-worst minus-21 and scored just eight points.

The contest was filled with foul trouble, as each team took 32 free throws. Three starters fouled out for Canada, but the team’s 88% clip from the charity stripe surpassed Greece’s 75% mark.

Outside of Antetokounmpo’s huge scoring performance on 11-of-17 shooting, Kostas Papanikolaou was the only other Greece player in double figures, tallying 17 points.

Canada takes on 1-0 Australia on Tuesday, while Greece plays against 0-1 Spain.