The Canadian basketball team opened its participation at the FIBA World Cup in China with a loss against Australia, 108-92.
The Boomers were confident in all but the third period when Canada played one of its best sequences ever. Nick Nurse’s boys scored 37 points and had a 22-5 run which saw them coming all the way back from a -12 points deficit at the halftime, to take the lead. Canada was up 65-59 and was leading after that quarter with 77-76.
But all the other parts of the match were catastrophic for the Canadians. Nick Nurse was often sitting at the bench, helpless to change anything on the floor. The Aussies were better in all the aspects of the game. They had unreal 72% for two-points and were dominating in the paint. Patty Mills was often going all the way to the rim unchallenged, while Aron Baynes and Andrew Bogut provided aerial domination. Eventually, Australia had 37 rebounds, compared to Canada’s 30.
It was obvious that Nurse’s team had problems with the shoot selection, but also that they’ve missed plenty of open attempts.
The start of the event was marked with Aussies attacking from under the rim, which created plenty of space for their backcourt players who slowly caught the rhythm. The double-digit lead was reached soon, and at the end of the first period, Team Canada was behind 29-20.
The same thing was throughout the second period, with the Aussies leading up to 15 points, finishing that part of the contest with 52-40 lead.
Then came the moments in which Canada looked excellent. But it turned out to be just a temporary spark of Nurse’s boys.
When the final period started, Matthew Delavedova shifted into a higher gear and single-handedly destroyed the Canadians in the decisive moments. The Cavaliers’ point guard scored 24 points, hitting 6 threes in 10 tries, along with 5 boards and dimes. Besides him, Australia had five other players with 10 or more buckets. Chris Goulding had 18, Mills 15, Joe Ingles 13 with 9 assists while Bogut added 12 and 9 boards, Aron Baynes scored 10.
Coach Nick Nurse was very unhappy with the way his players responded to some of the challenges during the event.
“I thought the start wasn’t very good for us, I didn’t think the end was very good, and I think the middle was excellent,” Nurse said. “We didn’t seem to be catching many breaks or the ball bouncing our way early, but we regrouped, and after halftime, we came out and put a heck of a third quarter together.”
Orlando Magic‘s Khem Birch led the Canadians with 18 points and 5 boards, while Cory Joseph who sparked the comeback in the third period had 16. Barcelona’s Kevin Pangos ended the match with 14 points.
This was the third match between these sides in the recent few weeks. Previous two were exhibitions in Australia, and each side posted one win. Though, this one is the most important so far. Canada will have a chance to redeem itself against Lithuania on September 3. Australia faces Senegal on the same day.
