FIBA World Cup: RJ Barrett Leads Canada Scoring in Historic Blowout (Highlights)
Sunday service took on a whole new meaning for Canada's men's national basketball team, which, thanks in part to New York Knicks star RJ Barrett, put forth a historic effort in FIBA Basketball World Cup play in Jakarta.
Barrett was a direct beneficiary of a World Cup record-breaking 44-assist performance, scoring a game-best 17 points as Team Canada posted a 128-73 shellacking of Lebanon in Group H play.
With those helpers, the Canadians (2-0) broke the record they set and shared with Serbia in the prior World Cup in 2019, putting up 37 in consolation play against Jordan (data first available in 1994). Though they'll need a France loss to Latvia to officially advance to round two, Canada is sitting pretty in a difficult group with an undefeated two-game mark and a point differential of plus-85, having won each of its showings by at least 30.
"It just shows that sharing is caring and these guys were ready to play the right way, play with a pass," Team Canada head coach Jordi Fernandez said of the historic passing performance, per the World Cup's official site. "Sometimes in games like these teams have the tendency to do it on their own and dribble too much. I'm proud of these guys for doing it the right way."
Barrett was the most common scorer of the assists with his 17 points earned on 7-of-12 shooting, which was part of an equally impressive 50-of-70 output from the field for Canada. It was a swift, efficient recovery for the Knicks' homegrown star hit only 1-of-10 from the field in the World Cup-opening win over France on Friday. Barrett also dished out three of the Canadian assists, as each participating maple leaf rep had at least one (Oklahoma City's Lu Dort was held out due to soreness).
The game's increasingly one-sided nature allowed Barrett to turn the Indonesian showcase into his own personal highlight reel and the Ontario native would play a vital role in establishing that dominance as Lebanon (0-2) inched out to an early 6-5 lead. Barrett was credited with the assist on a Kelly Olynk (Utah) double that gave the True Northerners the lead for good and the two united on a fastbreak mere moments later as part of a 10-0 run en route to a 29-13 lead after the first 10 minutes.
A marvel in the open floor, Barrett later drew the loudest cheers of the night when he turned a feed from Dillon Brooks (Houston) into a windmill dunk that put Canada ahead by 50.
Trae Bell-Haynes led Canada's assist output with eight off the bench while Omari Spellman, a 2018 first-round pick of Atlanta's, led the Lebanese with 16 points in defeat.
Canada closes opening group play on Tuesday morning against the aforementioned Latvians (9:30 a.m. ET, ESPN+).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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