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<\/p>\n\u201cThe game wasn\u2019t always close, but you could never tell the way they were in it from start to finish. They were really good tonight. Hamilton might need an NBA team one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander added four assists and three rebounds as Canada (5-0) led by as many as 26 points. Andrew Nembhard scored 23 points, all in the first three quarters, adding five rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n
Ismael Romero led Puerto Rico (1-4) with 17 points. Enrique Freeman had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander was grateful for all the support at TD Coliseum, an arena he personally invested in earlier this year. On Monday, the SGA-themed court was announced, with a mural of him unveiled on the venue\u2019s main concourse before the game tipped off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t take those opportunities and moments for granted, to be able to play in front of people that watched me grow up, essentially, and are from the same city I\u2019m from, grew up in the same neighbourhoods I\u2019m from, went through the same experiences I\u2019m from,\u201d said Gilgeous-Alexander. \u201cIt\u2019s a special connection, and it was a super fun out there, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Gordie Herbert, who coached Gilgeous-Alexander for the first time on Monday, was immediately impressed with the superstar player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call him Canada\u2019s national treasure,\u201d said Herbert. \u201cHe\u2019s a better person than a player, I think that tells you what kind of person he is. <\/p>\n
\u201cLeads by example every day. Every day in practice, he\u2019s engaged. Unbelievable. A national treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander is the starting point guard for the Thunder and led them to their first NBA championship in 2025. But when Canada was coming up with its game plan against Puerto Rico, he asked to play more off the ball, making Nembhard the starting point guard.<\/p>\n
Herbert said that Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s request helped Canada\u2019s offence immensely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s actually tougher to guard off the ball, tougher to come trap, tougher situations, and when we put him in two different situations during the game I think it opens up the game for him,\u201d said Herbert. \u201cThey can come trap him and get the ball out of his hands right away, so to speak. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s setting screens, different things, and trying to use them in different ways. I think it helps the whole team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander said he wanted to see the ball in Nembhard\u2019s hands more.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew is a heck of a player. He\u2019s special with the ball in his hands, and the more space you give a guy like that, the more you see out there on the floor,\u201d said Gilgeous-Alexander. \u201cI try to give him that space to be who he is and be comfortable out there and play off of that and find my spots and things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played enough basketball to know, where I can be effective, how I can be effective, whether I\u2019m on it or off it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2026.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe game wasn\u2019t always close, but you could never tell the way they were in it from start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-779584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}