The Canadian Senior Men’s National Team made program history on Tuesday after defeating Latvia 101-75 to finish atop Group H standings at the FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup 2023.
This is the first time that Canada has ever finished in first place after a group stage and it means that Canada will advance to the second round with an undefeated 3-0 record and with a staggering +111 point differential over three victories.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high 27 points to go with six rebounds and six assists as he scored 16 points in the third quarter as Canada broke the game open after a slow start and went on to outscore Latvia 58-33 in the second half.
“You’ve got to give credit to Latvia,” Team Canada head coach Jordi Fernández said. “They prepared better than any other team we’ve played before. They challenged us. They tried to deny Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander], tried to make it hard for him and obviously it gets to the point that he’ll take over. Like I said before, I have the best seat in the house, I can watch him perform with his teammates, which is good. It started on the defensive end and we played together. Latvia was a big reason why we struggled.”
After a rough shooting performance to start the game, Canada trailed 23-13 after the opening 10 minutes as Latvia opened the game with three consecutive three-pointers, continuing to fire from there. Canada shot just 22 per cent in the quarter as Latvia connected on more threes (5-for-10) than Canada had made field goals (4-for-22).
“I think for myself, especially, I didn’t start the game the way I needed to, the way the team needed me to,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Just with my energy level, my activeness on both ends of the floor. I wasn’t really making the right plays offensively and defensively, I was lazy. I knew that. I looked in the mirror and tried to be better from that point on. Tried to make that my focus, to be better every possession for my team. If I do that, it would set the tone and the tide would turn.”
Gilgeous-Alexander shot 10-for-17 from the floor, including 5-for-6 from the free throw line in 31 minutes of action. RJ Barrett added 22 points, Kelly Olynyk had 15 points and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 14 points, making four three-pointers as he helped Canada stay in the game early. Canada finished the game shooting 50 per cent from the floor and 41 per cent (16-for-39) from three while outrebounding Latvia 44-31, including 17-8 on the offensive glass.
Latvia was led by 16 points from Andrejs Grazulis and 14 points and 10 rebounds from Rodions Kurucs in the loss.
“We were not doing a lot of things for each other [early on],” Fernández said. “Everybody knows this team shoots the three well. They made some tough ones, but we also let them shoot some open ones. offensively, we were not getting to our spots, cutting, rolling, doing the selfless little things that I think we’ve shown we can be really good at. From that point on, the guys came together and did it.”
Things began to turn around as Canada upped its intensity on both ends of the floor.
Alexander-Walker and Olynyk were crucial in the second quarter to help Canada slowly chip away at Latvia’s lead. A three-pointer from Alexander-Walker brought Canada within seven points. After a pair of free throws from Olynyk, Canada was within five with 2:05 remaining in the half.
“There’s a song that says, ‘there’s 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife,’ do you guys know who sings that song? Alanis Morrisette, a Canadian,” Fernández said. “We were not defending, we were not doing the right things. I think Nickeil was that knife. He came in and played really hard, defended when he was open, he made all those threes.”
Another three, this time from Olynyk and assisted by Gilgeous-Alexander, had Canada within a point, 42-41 with 33 seconds remaining in the half. Melvin Ejim grabbed one of his seven rebounds in the game and found Barrett for a layup as time expired to give Canada the one-point lead, 43-42, at the break.
Fernández had plenty to say at halftime, but the most important challenge came from the players themselves.
“The best thing is when you walk in the locker room and the guys are already talking to each other,” Fernández said. “At that point, yes, I’m trying to help them as the head coach of the team, but they pretty much did it themselves. Holding each other accountable and staying together. You saw the result in the second half.”
After closing the first half on a 20-7 run to take that one-point lead into the locker room, Canada started the third by reeling off a 10-2 run in the first 1:29 of the quarter behind a floater from Barrett, back-to-back threes from Gilgeous-Alexander and Barrett and then a steal and dunk from Gilgeous-Alexander to force Latvia into a quick timeout.
Latvia pushed back out of the timeout, cutting Canada’s lead down to a point after a layup from Aigars Skele, but Gilgeous-Alexander made a pull-up jumper to keep Canada in front. After a miss from deep from Bertans, Gilgeous-Alexander was fouled going to the rim. He made one of two free throws, but an offensive board from Ejim on the second missed free throw led to Gilgeous-Alexander finding Phil Scrubb for a corner three to extend Canada’s lead to 10 with 1:25 remaining in the quarter.
After winning the third quarter 24-15, Canada took a 67-57 lead into the fourth where they continued to push the lead. An Alexander-Walker to Olynyk alley-oop opened the final quarter and then Olynyk drilled his second three of the game. Alexander-Walker extended Canada’s advantage to 14 points with a three pointer assisted by Scrubb. Another corner three from Alexander-Walker extended the lead to 22 points with 4:23 remaining and Canada went on to the victory from there.
“I think it was a great test for us to continue to play through adversity,” Alexander-Walker said. “Not making shots, not getting calls and figuring out how to win. From personal experience, it’s hard to come back from being down 10 in FIBA. For us to be able to do that after the first quarter and win each and every quarter after that was big for us.”
The Canadians will now have two days off before beginning the second round on Friday, opponent to be determined. While they will take the rest of Tuesday to enjoy accomplishing their goal of finishing first in the group stage, preparation for their next opponent begins now.
“Our first goal was to win the group stage, but we’re not done,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’re not satisfied. We have five more games to try to go win.”
