Canada appears to be dominant while defeating France
The USA will make their debut against New Zealand on Saturday, but here’s a recap of the opening day of the FIBA World Championship.
Canada 95, France 65
This is the Canadian team the rest of the world feared – posing a threat to winning a medal. Maybe a gold one.
After a slow first half, Canada pulled away in the third quarter behind a dominant performance of 27 points, 13 rebounds and six assists from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder to grab a comfortable win.
Canada took the lead with a 22-4 win in the third quarter, spurred on by their defense (particularly Evan Fournier, who had a hot first half but was only shot after halftime). Canada have the best full-backs in the World Cup in Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort and that made all the difference in that game.
Kelly Olynyk scored 19 for Canada and Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 12. Fournier finished the race on 19 points, leading France but was -28 for the day. Nando De Colo finished the game with 12 points for France while Rudy Gobert had eight points and nine rebounds.
Canada are now in the lead to win Group H. France must win a must-win game against Latvia on Sunday.
Dominican Republic 87, Philippines 81
In front of a FIBA record and a raucous home crowd of 38,115 in Manilla, the Dominican Republic prevailed late, beating the host Philippines.
Karl-Anthony Towns topped the Dominicans with 26 points and 10 rebounds and scored points throughout the game. The real turning point, however, came when the Philippines’ Jordan Clarkson was fouled with 3:32 left and his team was 3 minutes behind – without the Jazz’s former sixth man of the year, the Philippines could not create any good offensive chances.
A couple of the attacks on Clarkson were absolutely bad, but welcome to FIBA as a referee (both teams struggled with that in this game, the Dominican got the upper hand as he was the aggressor for most of the evening).
Clarkson took 28 points for the hosts and June Mar Fajardo added 16. Victor Liz scored 18 points for the Dominicans.
Australia 98, Finland 72
Australia established themselves as medal contenders in this tournament with a dominant opening performance against a good Finnish team. Patty Mills led by 25 points in a throwback performance.
The Thunder’s Josh Giddy put on an impressive all-around game with 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Joe Ingles scored 13 and Dante Exum added 10 points for Australia. Lauri Markkanen led Finland with 19 points,
Germany 81, Japan 63
Germany were in control from the first tap and secured a win 25 points behind the Magic’s Moritz Wagner, with the Raptors’ new point guard Dennis Schroder contributing 14 points and five assists.
However, the history of this game was injuries. Germany’s Franz Wagner left the game after twisting his ankle and will undergo an MRI. However, he could miss Germany’s crucial group game against Australia on Sunday. Germany must beat Australia or Finland (led by Lauri Markkanen) on Tuesday to progress from Group E.
The Suns’ Yuta Watanabe also led Japan with 20 points but appeared to pull a thigh muscle from a dunk.
Italy 81, Angola 67
It was an ugly shooting game, with the two teams scoring 9/61/3 combined (14.8%). Utah Jazz forward Simone Fontecchio led Italy by 19 points and his team clinched a solid win on opening night. Stefano Tonut scored 18 points for Italy while Angola was led by Childe Dundao who scored 18 points.
Montenegro 91, Mexico 71
That was the show for Nikola Vucevic, who took the lead early and then went on to score 27 points with 10 rebounds and put Montenegro in control from the start.
Latvia 109, Lebanon 70
Latvia thrived 15-0 in the first half – fueled by hot 3-point shots – and took control of the game early on. Davis Bertans scored 10 points but his brother Darius Bertans led Latvia with 20 points.
Lithuania 93, Egypt 67
Lithuania led by 14 points and made another attempt in game four to claim the opening win. Jonas Valanciunas had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Lithuania, which was led by Margiris Normantas with 18. Assem Marei had 14 to lead Egypt.
