The Canadian basketball team suffered a massive disappointment at the FIBA World Cup in China. Nick Nurse’s boys were defeated against Lithuania in a match which was crucial for their future at this competition.
Team Canada had high ambitions before the start of the tournament in China. But after the first two games, everything just vanished. All the talks about the Olympic Games, or even winning a medal, all that is gone.
A defeat against the Lithuanian side brought back the harsh reality.
“We feel a little down about the result tonight that we couldn’t battle a little harder and make it a little bit closer,” said Nick Nurse following the match.
Canada lost pace instantly in the first quarter, when they scored just 14 points and allowed on the other side 24. After that, the Lithuanian side controlled the match routinely, not allowing the rival to come back. They would slowly increase the advantage as time went by and eventually send Canada back home.
What is also interesting is that the Lithuanian coach Dainius Adomaitis used all of his 12 players, and only one of them couldn’t put his name on the scoresheet.
Only once did Canada came close, and that was during the middle of the third period, when they cut down the deficit to nine points, 59-50. But the rivals made 11-4 run which stunned Nurse’s crew, and brought back the momentum on their side.
The rebounding inferiority was the problem for Canada who allowed 19 rebounds and lost the aerial battle with 27-46. On top of that, Lithuania shot 51% from the field. Really, there was no way out for Canada in this match.
Kyle Wiltjer ended the match with 21 points, but except Cory Joseph who had scored 15 points, and Khem Birch with 12, there were no other guys with double-digit points in Canada.
On the other side, Edgaras Ulanovas had 15, Jonas Valanciunas 13 and 8 boards.
“Obviously when you come in here, we had our sights and goals and dreams on advancing out of this pool,” said the coach. “We knew it was going to be hard,” said Nurse who has been in a tough position ever since he took over the head coach position.
Instead of having a team filled with NBA stars, Nurse had only Cory Joseph and Khem Birch who only recently joined the Orlando Magic.
All the big names like Andrew Wiggins, RJ Barrett, Jamal Murray and others, decided to skip this competition and to stay with their teams over the summer. At first, Canada was considered to be one of the top challengers for Team USA, but as time went by, and all the withdrawals took place, their chances slowly started to decrease.
Already during the pre-tournament games, it could be seen that the Canadian side doesn’t have what it takes to be competitive in China. Now, in order to play at the Olympic games, the team has to go through additional qualifications. But that will be very tough, especially without all the NBA stars.
