Go Canada

 Quick post today, but I'll try to make it count! I wanted to take some time to shout out the 4 Canadians who will be seeing real rotation minutes in the finals this year. I can't remember a time ever where there were so many Canadian difference makers in the NBA finals and I've got at least some brief thoughts on all of them! Also, I missed the game last night but I saw Edmonton won in what looked like a thriller! Could we see Canada finally take home a Stanley Cup? I hope so!

Benedict Mathurin - Montreal, Quebec

I'm not sure why but it seems like Montreal produces a lot of hoopers! This is probably the guy I have the least amount of opinions on, we never got to see him play for team Canada, but he's Canadian and he gets a shout out too! Mathurin is a funny player type, out of players who've played at least 29 minutes per game in the regular season, the only guards who have fewer potential assists than Benedict Mathurin are Dillon Brooks, Lu Dort and Gary Trent Jr. First of all, amazing there's 2 Canadians on the list of ball hogs. Second of all, amazing Mathurin accomplished this feat in an offense that was second in the league in passes made per game. Mathurin is everything the Pacers aren't, and I think that's a fun change of pace. What Mathurin does do is score the basketball. He can get downhill as well as anyone on the Pacers, finish with touch or athleticism or shoot from deep. He may be a bit of a black hole on offense but when he's hot it's fun to watch. I saw someone on Reddit compare him to JR Smith, I think that's such a good player comp for Mathurin. Given that Mathurin's playstyle really doesn't match how the Pacers want to approach the game, he's seen large stretches of ineffectiveness during this playoff run. His ability to get hot continues to give him chances though and I am willing to bet he'll have at least 1 scoring explosion game in this finals. I can't wait to see. 

Andrew Nembhard - Aurora, Ontario

My favorite Pacer! 2 years ago this statement would be nonsense, but today I think it stands, the only Canadian player I trust more than SGA in a big game is Andrew Nembhard.  Nembhard has been huge for the Pacers throughout this entire playoff run. His 3 point shooting goes up another level in the playoffs. In the regular season Nembhard shot 29% on just 2.7 attempts per game, in the playoffs he's shooting 48% on 3.8 attempts per game. I can't even explain it, he just goes up another level when the lights get brightest. It's even more evident at the end of games. Because Nembhard wasn't a knockdown shooter in the regular season, teams willingly help off of him to try and stop Haliburton and Siakam, and Nembhard has burned them every time this post season. None of this even mentions his defense. In round 1 he was the primary defender for Damian Lillard in the games Dame played. Round 2 he had the Donovan Mitchell assignment, round 3 he was tasked with guarding Jalen Brunson and now in the finals he's likely going to start on the MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Nembhard mad each of their lives difficult and while Shai will get his, Nembhard won't make it easy. I think it's safe to say now that this is a guy any team in the NBA would love to have. He's a do it all guard that steps up when you need him most and understands what's needed from him in his role on any given night. He's quickly become one of my favorite players in the league and is one of the reasons I chose to enjoy the Pacers this post season.

Luguentz Dort - Montreal, Quebec

I really enjoy how the NBA community despises Dillon Brooks while simultaneously loving Lu Dort. To me Dort is just Dillon Brooks with less trash talk. I love me some Dillon Brooks and as an extension, I love me some Lu Dort as well. Lu Dort might be the best guard/wing defender in the entire NBA. Although he's just 6'4, he's built like a fire hydrant and you absolutely can't move him on the block. Despite his girth, he slips around screens as well as anyone and is one of the best in the league at sticking to a guy. Similarly to Nembhard, Dort got the assignment of guarding the best perimeter player on the other team in each series they played. He had Ja Morant in round 1, Jamal Murray in round 2 then Anthony Edwards in round 3. Go back and check the box scores, all of those guys had below average series because Lu Dort is just a menace. On offense, I mentioned it earlier, Lu can be a bit of a black hole. He's not a guy that's going to be moving the ball or be your primary play maker, the exact opposite actually. He's on a team that doesn't need him to be though, with all the attention Shai gets on offense all Lu needs to do is make himself open for catch and shoot 3 point attempts. He's made himself into a respectable 3 point shooter overall, but it is very streaky and he's just as likely to go 0/10 as he is 7/10. You live with that because he's simply one of the best defenders in basketball. Dort is going to get the Tyrese Haliburton assignment for sure this series. I've mentioned before, you can't really double Haliburton or else you're daring him to play the way he wants to play. Luckily for the Thunder Lu Dort is probably the best guy around for guarding Haliburton 1 on 1 and I expect that to be a major difference in this series. 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - Hamilton, Ontario

What more can I say about Shai? I believe I have 2 full posts dedicated to this guy so I am not going to belabor this point. Shai has a genuine case for best player in the league. I think it's indisputable that he's the best scorer in the league today, especially after he averaged 30 points per game against a Minnesota defense that has a long line of guys perfectly built for guarding him. I saw a comment that said Shai is elite at scoring from anywhere on the floor, which means a defender needs to be aware and try to take away everything, which is impossible to do. In this series, I said in my preview, the Pacers don't have anyone nearly as good as the Timberwolves to throw at Shai. People say you can just collapse the paint and try to shut down his drives, but every team he's faced in the playoffs has tried this and he's diced every one of them up. He's a leader who always gives credit to his teammates every step of the way and you can tell he's playing the game the right way. I, like most people, expect the Thunder to emerge victorious in this series and if they do it'd be shocking if Shai isn't the first Canadian NBA Finals MVP. The fact that he's committed to playing for team Canada on the international stage should excite any Canadian basketball fan. Any game you go into with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on your team is a game you have a chance of winning. He's seriously that good of a player and something tells me we're just witnessing the beginning of his story with this series. 

And that's that! Really cool to have these guys all playing in this series. A pseudo-Canadian not mentioned here is Pascal Siakam who will always get love from Toronto no matter where else he goes in his career. Overall this has to be the Canadian basketball fan's dream finals and this Canadian basketball fan couldn't be more excited.