Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Team Canada Staves off Spain to Clinch 3-0 Record in Group A

Team Canada entered Friday with a clear objective - win and clinch the No. 1 spot in Group A and a perfect 3-0 record. That is one of the most impressive feats of Group Play as this was labeled the group of death as soon as it was announced.

Following Team Australia's upset loss to Greece, the road to the No. 1 spot got a bit cleaner. This game started out as a back-and-forth affair as the two sides were dead even after the opening frame.

However, in the second period, it was Team Canada that grabbed control of this lead pushing their advantage out to 11 points at intermission. Though, with Spain's chances of advancing resting on this game, they would not go away without a fight.

Out of the locker room, Spain was still missing a spark offensively, only trimming the lead to an eight-point gap entering the final frame.

Though, to start the fourth quarter, it was six straight makes for Team Spain that got them into a two-possession game with Canada where it stayed competitive the rest of the way.

Andrew Nembhard racked up 18 points by the two-minute mark in the contest to help power Team Canada off the pine and stave off Team Spain.

With Team Canada only up two with less than a minute to go, a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drive-and-kick to RJ Barrett put the team up five with 38 ticks remaining.

The OKC Thunder superstar had an uncharacteristically bad night at the charity stripe, after splitting the difference at the charity stripe one possession earlier to put Team Canada up four, a Spain triple forced Gilgeous-Alexander to the line again only up one with 2.3 seconds left - after a timeout to ice the shooter who was 7-for-11 at the stripe to that point, the superstar made them both.

A halfcourt heave was short by Team Spain to lose late and the Canadians clinched a perfect record in the group of death and have set themselves up nicely for the knockout stage seeding.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 20 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal while shooting 50 percent from the floor. Dort finished with two rebounds and as many assists.

Former OKC Thunder guard Alex Abrines made an impact on this game for Team Spain with 12 points, two assists and three rebounds.

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