U.S. tops Canada in Olympic men's basketball exhibition

For USA Basketball, the road to the Paris Olympics has started with a win.

Anthony Davis scored 13 points, Stephen Curry added 12 and the United States opened its tune-up schedule for the Paris Games by topping Canada 86-72 on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

Jrue Holiday scored 11 points and Anthony Davis finished with 10 for the U.S., which has four more exhibitions before getting to France.

RJ Barrett scored 12 points for Canada, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks each had 10.

The seventh-ranked Canadians last saw the top-ranked Americans in the bronze-medal game at the FIBA World Cup in September, when Canada came out on top to win its first-ever medal at the event.

President Barack Obama was at Wednesday night's game, as were many NBA coaches and dozens of USA Basketball dignitaries in town for the federation's 50th anniversary celebration. Among them: Jerry Colangelo, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Dawn Staley, Lisa Leslie, Teresa Edwards, Swin Cash, Lindsay Whalen and many more.

WATCH | Canadian men's basketball team falls to U.S. in pre-Olympic exhibition game:

The U.S. was down 11-1 midway through the first quarter, having missed its first six shot attempts. The rest of the half: U.S. 40, Canada 22, and the Americans shot 18 for 28 — 64.3 per cent — in that span. The lead was 41-33 at the break and the Americans stretched it to 69-54 going into the fourth.

It was easy to see where the Americans, who have been together for less than a week, still are figuring things out; there were at least four occasions where simple passes ended up in the first row of seats because someone thought a zig was coming instead of a zag.

The second unit for the U.S. — Anthony Davis, Bam