1. It was hard to tell early on if Canada was a step slow or if Senegal was simply that much more aggressive and athletic. I’d have to say it was more the latter.
Senegal rolled out five players not named Gorgui Dieng – Andrew Wiggins’ Minnesota Timberwolves teammate who also chose not play in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament – but all who seemed to be big, quick and determined to chase down every ball. It’s hard to look good against a team like that and very, very easy to look bad.
Looking good means absorbing their energy, making them waste it with extra ball movement and then making them pay by knocking down open shots on ball reversals or dump-offs when they over-commit. That’s easy to do when shots are falling but from the start Canada had a hard time knocking down shots, finishing 2-of-17 from three – Brady Heslip was 0-of-5 on his own.
Canada’s guard tandem of Cory Joseph and Tyler Ennis were able to get into the paint but weren’t very productive when there. They struggled to finish over Senegal’s many active, lengthy defenders – they were a combined 9-of-24 – and when they did pitch out not much was happening. They did combine for 25 points, five assists and just one turnover, which was good, but it would have been nice to have Nik Stauskas waiting on the catch on a few of those possessions.
Canada led by two after the first quarter, five at half and 47-42 after 30 minutes. Their largest lead was seven.
2. On the plus side, Canada has proven a very eager, active defensive team through two games, though perhaps helped by the fact their opponents so far are struggling with their own offensive cohesion.
Regardless, Canada was able to hold Senegal to just 28 per cent shooting, although that number was a bit misleading in that Senegal was 10-of-40 from three. Yes, they took 40 threes in a 40-minute game.
All those misses led to plenty of long rebounds and Senegal got their share – 18 of them as a matter of fact to win the rebounding battle 53-46. Had they knocked down a few of their open looks and especially the wide open three Senegal had with 21 seconds left that would have tied it, things might have been very different, but Canada can say the same thing.
Through two games Canada has been able to generate offence from their defence and they held a 10-5 edge in fast-break points. Holding onto the ball helped – committing just 12 turnovers in such helter-skelter game was a feat – but hitting just 14 of 23 free throws was not ideal.
3. The goal for Canada was to advance from Pool A as the No. 1 seed and they have achieved that. They will play the No. 2 team out of Pool B – most likely Philippines or New Zealand – and thus hopefully avoid France until the finals. They get two days off before the semis and will likely use a good portion of that time working out the kinks in their half-court game, which has looked ragged at best through two starts.
A couple of weaknesses in Canada’s game so far is overall size – they get pretty small after Tristan Thompson (seven points, 10 rebounds) himself undersized, although Joel Anthony gave them some very good minutes against Senegal and could have been used more.
Also, the ability to makes threes in volume. Greater ball movement and spacing will help generate those looks and hopefully some rest and more acclimatization will help Heslip, Phil Scrubb and others step into their shots with a little more bounce.