Canada's clinic vs. El Salvador shows promise of new pace-and-space offence

Canada's Shaina Pellington (21) goes up for the shot as Dominican Republic's Genesis Evangelista (7) tries to defend during first half action of FIBA Women's Olympic Pre Qualifying Tournaments Americas 2019, in Edmonton, Alta., on Sunday, November 17, 2019. (Jason Franson/CP)

TORONTO – The Canadian women’s national basketball team put on an offensive clinic Monday as they crushed El Salvador 98-41 to improve to 3-0 in group play at the 2021 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup.

For the game, Canada shot 51.6 per cent from the floor, 40.7 per cent from three-point range and assisted on 26 of 32 made field goals.

That’s about as good as it gets offensively, and while world No. 85 El Salvador wasn’t much of a test for the powerful No. 4-ranked Canadian side, seeing the ball whip around for easy, uncontested threes and layups had to have been a welcome sight for a Canadian club that’s working out the kinks in a newer, more modern offensive system predicated on pace and space.

“We're really working on getting open shots, getting great shots, and so we're committed to that process and I thought we did it at times and there were other times that we settled for earlier, contested shots,” said Team Canada head coach Lisa Thomaidis after Monday’s game.

“And so we're just going to continue to be accountable to ourselves for getting those high-quality shots, regardless of the opponent.”

Always an athletic and explosive team, Thomaidis and her staff have been trying to change Canada’s offensive identity from a post-up-heavy team into a freer squad offensively, and so far at the AmeriCup the results have been good.

In particular, this new system has appeared to have unlocked something in Canadian guard Shaina Pellington, who currently ranks third in tournament scoring, averaging 15 points per game on incredible 73.3 per cent shooting from the floor.

On Monday, Pellington scored a game-high 21 points on 5-of-6 shooting, doing the brunt of her damage at the free-throw line where she was 9-of-10.

Canada is deliberately trying to space the floor more and this has appeared to opened up more driving lanes for Pellington to explode to the basket where all defenders can seem to do to slow her down is to foul her.

“She's a great athlete. She's explosive, she can get out and score in transition – I think you're seeing a lot of that right now. So we're fortunate,” said Thomaidis of Pellington.

And it’s not just Pellington who has feasted as a result of this new offence of Canada’s, either. Nearly every guard on the roster has benefitted from the additional space to work with and the greener light to launch from distance.

But as good as this tweak to Canada’s offence has been for its guards, this was a team that reached No. 4 in the world mainly on the back of its talented bigs who primarily ply their trade on the low block. And it’s been a harder adjustment for some of them.

“At times, it's hard to find where I fit in this offence because it is, at the moment, I know this is going to change, but it is very guard-dominated,” said veteran Canadian forward Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe. “So it's just finding the areas where I can score, where I can get the ball. And it's a similar situation for Miranda (Ayim), Kayla (Alexander), Laeticia (Amihere). So we're just learning, just finding where we fit into this offence and how we can be effective.”

This is an issue that Thomaidis and her staff are well aware of and have been trying to find the equilibrium between playing more up-tempo and finding looks down low.

“We're really trying to find a balance between playing with pace, yet still getting some touches with our forwards,” Thomaidis said. “I think we can sometimes get lulled into this dribble drive and the ball not getting inside, but we really need to make sure that we are getting some touches inside. We have some great athletes that can score from there and score in a one-on-one situation. And so it's finding that right balance right now.”

So, for as dominant as Canada was against El Salvador on Monday, they are still very much a work in progress, and likely will continue to be even after the AmeriCup right up until the ball tips off in Tokyo at the Olympics.

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