Mexico City — The scouting report is out. When playing Team Canada the plan is to play as slow as possible, and if there is any chance to slow it down some more — by, say, fouling a Canadian player in transition — do that too.

On paper Canada was a massive favourite prior to its 103-66 win, and who knows what the score could have been if it had executed a little more crisply and Panama was less focused on dragging the Canadians into the mud.

It was an ugly game, highlighted by a breakout performance by Brady Heslip who effectively put the game out of reach in the second quarter, hitting five triples in nine tries to score 15 of Canada’s 22 points in the quarter. Although as the game got out of hand, it seemed that everyone was finding their range, which could bode well for a Canadian team that has struggled a little bit shooting from deep.

Heslip led five Canucks in double figures with 23 points, including seven triples. Nik Stauskas had 20 for Canada.

When Heslip is going, he can defy nearly any strategy.

“Give the ball to him,” said Anthony Bennett of Canada’s game plan with regard to Heslip. “He’s a shooter. Even in practice, once he knocks down two, give the ball to him. He’ll do the rest.”

But how?

Slowing things down was Panama’s plan against Canada in the opening game of the second round, a battle between two teams at the opposite end of the talent spectrum.

This edition of the FIBA Americas Championship is a launching pad for Canada’s best-ever generation of basketball talent. By comparison, it’s the last gasp for what might be Panama’s best ever too, but the Central American country doesn’t have the same pedigree as Canada’s NBA-laden bunch. Panama’s average age is 31, and it has a 39 year-old and a 41-year-old figuring prominently in its rotation.

The last time Panama advanced to the second round at FIBA Americas was in 2005, thanks in part to a win over a Canadian program that was in the low-ebb of the post-Steve Nash era.

So it’s not like Panama was coming into the game hoping to get into a shootout with Canada, nor a foot race. The slower the better.

But that’s everyone’s plan, it seems.

It will almost certainly be Uruguay’s strategy on Monday night when the two meet in the second game of the second round.

And why not? Canada came into the second round as the tournament’s highest scoring team and with its youth and speed it feels the more it can run, the better.

Everyone else knows it too, but Canada’s strength to this point has been pushing past the slow-down tactics and controlling the tempo.

“[It starts with] defence. I feel like if we turn them over that creates our type of game,” said Cory Joseph, who has been getting stronger day by day, scoring 14 of his 15 points in the first half. “We feel like we’re long, athletic, we’re young so we feel like that’s definitely an advantage for us.”

The seeds of the blowout were sown by Canada holding Panama to 33 per cent from the floor, out-rebounding Panama 55-34 and forcing 14 turnovers.

“We’re always going to look for our defence to feed the offence. It’s been a staple of ours since we started camp,” said Triano “We said that with 10 games in 12 days, whatever you play, there’s going to be days when you don’t make shots and you can choose to be really good defensively throughout all those games.

“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. … We’re getting close, but we’re not where we need to be.”

They did in spurts.

Canada led 20-10 after the first quarter, closing the period on a 12-0 run, with Cory Joseph doing much of the damage. After Heslip caught fire Canada led 42-23 at the half.

It wasn’t perfect basketball. Canada turned the ball over eight times, mostly unnecessarily, and Canadians not named Heslip were 1-of-8 from deep, but when you hold your opponent to 24 per cent shooting, it makes up for a lot.

Add Heslip to long list of Canadians who have had signature moments already. No one hunts shots better, and when Canada got out and ran and got on the glass it was easy pickings.

“When I come off the bench I just want to be aggressive and guys were doing a great job finding me in transition and it seemed if I was missing we would get the offensive rebound and they would find [me] again,” said Heslip. “They were finding me when I was open and if I was missing we would always get the offensive rebound and they did a good job passing to be for another one.”

Everyone else got into the act in the second half. Andrew Wiggins opened the scoring on a fast break dunk and Stauskas hit a three early in the next possession, pushing Canada’s lead to 25. A pair of Stauskas free throws and another dunk by the Philadelphia 76ers shooting guard saw the gap edge towards 30. A pair of triples by Wiggins (17 points, 15 in the third quarter) with just over three minutes left pushed it to 34.

The balance of the game was spent getting the likes of Olynyk, Joseph and Wiggins their rest and touching wood that no one gets hurt.

Heslip got a chance to play the point, a role he might have to fill in an emergency. Andrew Nicholson got a chance to see some extended minutes, and Aaron Doornekamp was able to see the ball go in.

Any one of them could make a play that matters as the tournament gets to the final stages. Winning four straight games by an average of 29.75 points offers certain luxuries.

When Canada plays Uruguay on Monday it should represent a sterner test as that team pushed Argentina to the limit in its game on Sunday. But Canada would be the prohibitive favourite and presuming it gets through unscathed it can focus on what should be an electric match-up against Mexico on Tuesday night and a chance to all but secure its place in the semi-finals.

The Canadian men’s basketball team plans to run full speed to its bright future. How quickly they get there is up to them.