4 Heroes and 3 Zeroes from Team Canada's hard-fought Olympic win over Spain

Zero: The Rebounding

The Achilles heel of Team Canada are its bigs. They have some of the best guards in the entire field, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray and RJ Barrett, not to mention Andrew Nembhard and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. On the wing, they have some ferocious defense in the form of Lugentz Dort and Dillon Brooks.

Their rotation of bigs is much thinner, however, with a trio of bench players in the NBA and Khem Birch, who is now out of the league. Offensively they are fine, with the rim-rolling Dwight Powell, the pick-and-popping Kelly Olynyk and the do-it-all Trey Lyles. But on defense they are quite weak in the middle, with no elite paint protector.

The worst part is in the rebounding department, where Canada's lack of size and heft manifests most starkly. Spain outrebounded Canada 40-29, including 17-9 in offensive rebounds. Spain very nearly came back on account of their rebounding, getting an offensive rebound in the final 10 seconds that led to a Sergio Llull 3-pointer to trim their lead to 1 point.

With teams such as Serbia, Germany and France looming with massive front lines (not to mention Team USA and its trio of elite rebounding centers) Canada has to figure this problem out or it will elad to a disappointing exit.

Hero: Perimeter Defense

The Canadiens may not have elite shot-blocking in the paint, but Spain struggled to even get there due to the lockdown defense on the perimeter. Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort led the way in shutting down Spain's best perimeter scorers, but Gilgeous-Alexander, Barrett and Nembhard contributed as well. Lorenzo Brown and Alex Abrines, Spain's starting backcourt, combined to shoot just 5-for-16 from the field, while Brooks harried Santi Aldama into a 2-for-8 shooting night. Off the bench, Sergio Llull went just 4-for-12.

As a team, Spain shot just 44.9 percent from the field, including 27.8 percent from deep. They also took just 17 total free throws as Canada was largely able to defend without fouling. Brooks and Dort had just two fouls each after fouling out of their Olympic opener against Greece. With the perimeter talent of Germany and USA looming, Canada has the defenders to match up, and they smothered Spain.

Canada awaits the results of the Group C games on Saturday, but most likely they will face France in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.