MEXICO CITY—They are becoming quite something before our very eyes, a team of talented youngsters laying to waste all comers, a group exuding confidence and growing daily.

The true test still awaits this Canadian men’s basketball team that’s blowing through the FIBA Americas championship but for right now, it is something to behold.

Canada ran roughshod over older, slower and over-matched Panama here Sunday night — a 103-66 victory that was ridiculously easy and the team’s fourth in a row — and once again the full measure of Canada’s depth was on display.

Brady Heslip was other-worldly with seven 3-pointers on a 23-point night, the defence was smothering and the offence varied and unstoppable.

And yet there might be more to come, despite winning their four games by slightly under 30 points a night.

“We don’t try to look at it (point differential) as much, we still feel like we haven’t played a full game, we feel like we haven’t played a complete 40 minutes,” said point guard Cory Joseph. “We’ve had lapses, a lot despite what the score says and we try to look at those lapses on tape and learn.”

But truthfully, Canada is teaching more than learning. They are able to shake off any attempt to slow games with their defence, they are equally capable as shooters and drivers; it hasn’t been easy molding basically an unstoppable team in a month but it’s sure been fun.

“I don’t think we’ve played 40 minutes of great defence, but we’re showing signs that we can wear teams down a little bit and take teams out of what they want to do,” said coach Jay Triano. “We’re getting close, but we’re not where we need to be.

But as much fun as this is, the stage is just being set for what really matters — a Friday night semifinal that will determine who goes to the Rio Olympics and who has to try to fight through a repechage tournament next July.

And the truth that’s emerged here is that this is a three-team tournament for two Olympic positions.

Unbeaten Mexico and Argentina and 3-1 Canada have emerged head and shoulders above the rest of the teams here.

For Canada, it is likely going to take either beating Mexico in Mexico or Argentina on Friday night to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 2000 in Sydney.

Either Argentina or Mexico — and probably Uruguay on Monday afternoon or Dominican Republic on Wednesday — are going to offer more resistance than Panama did Sunday when they basically mailed in the last 12 minutes.

That was after Canada had blitzed them with their best outside shooting night of the tournament. Heslip made five 3-pointers in the second quarter alone while Andrew Wiggins made both of his attempts and Canada had 14 for the game.

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“He can shoot off the dribble, he can catch and shoot, he’s just one of those guys that when it goes up you always think it’s going in,” Joseph said of Heslip “When he misses it you feel almost disappointed because he rarely misses.

“It’s fun to watch and it’s fun to play with him. It’s my job, when I see a guy is hot like that, to get him in the right position to make those threes and he was definitely doing that today.”