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TSN Raptors Reporter

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MEXICO CITY - Arms crossed, Jay Triano paced along the sideline in front of Canada's bench and shouted at his team with a couple minutes remaining in the second quarter.

"Talk, talk," he yelled with the Canadians on defence. "Let's go," he roared, encouraging them to push the ball after each rebound.

From watching the head coach, you would have no idea Canada led by 30 at the time.

After their disappointing FIBA Americas debut, Triano didn't mind using a game against the abysmal Cuban team to work out some of the kinks exposed in Tuesday's 94-87 loss to Argentina.

"We looked at the second half as an opportunity for us to get better," Triano said following Canada's 101-59 rout of Cuba. "We have to use everything that we have. It was either that or go back and have a practice tomorrow morning or tomorrow night. We have to use these situations. There is no better situation than playing in a game, where you don't know what the other team is going to do."

"Yeah, he was on us," said Andrew Wiggins, who scored 10 of his 15 points during a dominant first quarter. "I think all the coaches were, all the players were. We were excited to play today because of the loss yesterday. We were excited to get our first win of the tournament."

Triano was not happy with his team's compete level against the Argentines. They came out flat and looked nothing like the defence-first, up-tempo club he expects them to be.

To say Wednesday's opponent offered less competition would be an understatement. Cuba was as bad as advertised, maybe worse. Canada led by 20 points at the end of one quarter, 30 after two and by as much as 47 in the fourth. From start to finish, you could see the coaching staff re-emphasizing the team's focal points, the same things they've been preaching since training camp last month - communicate on defence, crash the boards, get out and run.

"Well I don't think it's any secret we're trying to push the basketball and we felt like one of our strengths is our depth," Triano said. "I thought we were able to do that because we were rebounding the ball better at the defensive end."

They held Cuba to 28 per cent from the field, a laughable 14 per cent in the first half, and out-rebounded them 52-34. They recorded 29 assists to just five turnovers.

"I feel like yesterday we just wanted to get the jitters out," Anthony Bennett said. "First game everybody just wants to go out there and play hard, especially against a good team like Argentina. But today we kind of settled down and did the things we did in Puerto Rico and in the Pan Ams. Everything worked out."

The first-quarter play of Wiggins was also encouraging. Unlike Tuesday's game, when he mostly blended in, Canada looked to feed its best player early and often. The reigning NBA rookie of the year did not disappoint. He was assertive against a team that had no shot at stopping him, scoring eight of Canada's first 18 points, all of them on offensive rebounds. He may have been even better on the defensive end, where he has the ability to be a real difference-maker throughout the tournament.

"I think Andrew's going to be a guy that we need to play very well and we need to be a focus for us offensively, for sure," Triano said. "He's proved he can do it in the NBA. We need him to be the focal point of what we're doing. I think when we do that, other teams are going to have problems."

What can they take out of their first win? Outside of utilizing it as an extended practice, not much.

It was more of a must-not-lose than a must-win game for Canada, who assured themselves a spot in the second round with the victory. Cuba fell to 0-3, having been outscored by 93 in their three contests, and will be eliminated after the tournament's preliminary round.

As a result, the two points Canada is awarded in the standings for beating Cuba will not carry over. They still have two more games to play in the opening round - Thursday against Venezuela and Friday against Puerto Rico. Those contests should be more telling. They'll need to bank wins against better teams in both the first and second rounds to advance to the semifinals next week.

"This is all part of what we're talking about," Triano said. "Our growth as a team, our mental toughness, being able to play through every quarter, every possession, throughout a long tournament when you're tired and fatigued and banged up when things don't go right, like they didn't yesterday. I think for the most part we passed the test, but we've got to stay locked in all of the time. We're playing good teams."

"They're baby steps, but we're going in the right direction."