PARIS — On most nights in an NBA season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scores 30 or so points, but Olympic basketball is nothing at all like most nights in the NBA.
On most nights in an NBA season, Jamal Murray scores 20 or so points, but in two games of the Olympic men’s tournament, he hasn’t scored 20 points combined in two victories.
The narrative coming into the Games, with all the anticipation around this front-loaded basketball team, was that Team Canada would only go as far as Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray could carry them.
And now, the story needs to be altered and re-written just slightly, the plot further developing, the roster either expanding or shrinking based on circumstance.
The best part of the tournament is that Canada has won twice in two games, played some great basketball in moments but not enough of it to appear to be dominant in any way.
Canada barely beat Greece in Game 1. But they got the win.
Then, Team Canada was more self assured and fortunate in a close game with the historically plucky and more skilled Australians. But they got the win in Game 2.
Now they have to figure out what comes next.
Through two games, Gilgeous-Alexander has been far and away Canada’s best player — but in doing so, he has managed to score just 37 points — which is something he did in single games 12 times during the most recent season with Oklahoma City.
Through two games, the oft-injured Murray looked like he was trying to find an edge of some kind, a place to fit into an offence that doesn’t seem to fit him yet. He has scored just 13 points in two games and barely looked like much of a factor at all.
Maybe when the medal round arrives, Canada will have to turn to Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray for its primary offence, but right now it’s finding help in ways that are both encouraging and promising.
RJ Barrett, the son of former Olympian Rowan Barrett, the almost-new Raptor, has been Canada’s top scorer through two games and has looked extremely comfortable playing the international game.
The all-star defenders, Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort, who both got in foul trouble in Game 1 and both ended the game prematurely by fouling out, were smarter and more disciplined and so hard to play against opposing the Australians in the 93-83 win Tuesday afternoon.
Canada had sharp games from Gilgeous-Alexander, Barrett, Dort and Brooks, but there is still much work to be done in a few short days by coach Jordi Fernandez — because that’s the way it works in almost any Olympic team tournament.
It’s about building your game. It’s about building your style. It’s about finding out who can and who can’t at the most important times. It’s about trust and the one thing Canada has displayed through two wins: It can play some defence. Even being undersized, it can play defence.
Offensive flow, though. could use some work. Getting Murray better shots, letting Gilgeous-Alexander play more 1-on-1, finding a bench that can contribute more than it has to date will be the task for Fernandez as the medal round approaches.
But for now, there is none of that Canada angst we can often bring upon ourselves in events such as these. Think of Team Canada hockey in Salt Lake City in 2002. There was crisis before there was gold. Here there is no crisis.
But there are some players who either have to step up or be used less as coach Fernandez settles on rotations that work best for Team Canada.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, hasn’t found his game here at all. He didn’t score against Australia. Neither did Kelly Olynyk in limited minutes Tuesday.
Murray didn’t start, which was surprising by itself, and then made only two baskets in the game. That was one than Trey Lyles made.
Only Andrew Nembhard, the Indianapolis point guard from Newmarket, looked comfortable coming off the bench until the former Raptor Khem Birch provided surprising scoring late in the game for Canada.
The wins have been nice — and Canada really should go 3-0 in the round robin and so-called Group of Death after it plays Spain on Friday.
The Group of Death should probably be renamed to something less menacing. But getting through was a goal — and being undefeated in the group is a possibility — and that puts Canada in the best possible position for playoff basketball in Paris.
Still, you can see this isn’t the NBA. With Canada leading 72-70 in the fourth quarter against Australia, Gilgeous-Alexander went to the line and missed twice. He’s an 87% free-throw shooter. He was 90% the year before that. He doesn’t miss two in a row.
But this isn’t the NBA. This is the Olympics. The expected becomes the unexpected here.
Team Canada is 2-0. Just how they got here — a touch unexpected.