Team USA shakes off slow start to beat Canada in pre-Olympics exhibition opener WSOC TV [Video]

Team USA began its pre-Olympics exhibition tour against arguably its biggest competition for the gold medal. It was an encouraging start.

Led by Anthony Edwards and Anthony Davis, the Americans defeated Canada 86-72 on Wednesday in Las Vegas. The team has four exhibitions remaining over the next two weeks before heading to Paris, against Australia, Serbia, South Sudan and Germany.

The game opened as a slog, despite featuring the two teams most stocked with NBA talent from top to bottom. With Kevin Durant out with a calf strain, Team USA opened with a starting lineup of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker and Joel Embiid. The group didn’t seem to work very well, but the exercise might have been experimental as much as anything.

Team USA didn’t score its first field goal until the fifth minute of play and was behind 21-14 at the end of the first quarter. There was also the inevitable …