Canada to play U.S. for men's basketball World Cup bronze after pair of semifinal upsets
Serbia to face Germany, led by Canadian coach Gordie Herbert, for gold on Sunday
No Nikola Jokic, no problem. Even with its best player sitting out this summer, Serbia is going to play for gold at the Basketball World Cup.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 23 points and Serbia defeated Canada 95-86 in the World Cup semifinals on Friday.
RJ Barrett scored 23 for Canada (5-2), which was bidding to make the World Cup final for the first time. It'll face the United States for the bronze on Sunday, when the Canadians will try for their most significant international medal since winning silver at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Germany, led by Canadian head coach Gordie Herbert of Penticton, B.C., upset the U.S. 113-111 in Friday's other semifinal.
"Credit to Serbia. They played a great game," Barrett said. "They played hard, they played physical, they're very well-coached and disciplined. Got to give them credit for that."
WATCH | Canada loses to Serbia:
Ognjen Dobric and Nikola Milutinov each scored 16 for Serbia, the best-shooting team so far in the tournament — making 55 per cent of its shots coming into the day, then connecting on 62 per cent to end Canada's hopes of gold.
"It doesn't matter who's not here," Serbia's Marko Guduric said. "It's all about this group of guys, whoever is here, whoever is wearing this Serbian jersey. We never give up. We fight until the end. It's in our blood."
Serbia (6-1) is in the World Cup final for the second time in the last three tournaments. It lost to the U.S. in the 2014 final, and will face either Germany on Sunday night in the title game at Manila.
"Nobody believed but we didn't care about anybody," Serbia forward Filip Petrusev said. "We just had fun with each other. It's a great group of guys, great chemistry, and when you have good chemistry and great players, anything can happen. We believed and we're here."
'Proud of my guys'
Dillon Brooks scored 16 for Canada and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 15 — 10 below his tournament average entering the day.
"I'm proud of my guys," Canada coach Jordi Fernandez said. "It was not perfect. We were OK offensively. We were atrocious defensively. When a team shoots 62 per cent from the field and 45 per cent from 3, obviously something was not done well and we didn't prepare well enough for the game."
Come Sunday, they'll have a medal anyway. Gold or silver, that's the only question.
"I want to dedicate this win to him," Guduric said of Simanic, who remains in a Manila hospital. "Hopefully, we're going to see him soon with us, with the team. Just want to say that hopefully he feels a little bit better when he knows he has a medal. I know it's not important, but I hope we made him happy tonight."
Slew of early foul trouble
Canada started the tournament with an emphatic 95-65 win over reigning Olympic silver medallist France, and had the second-lowest odds — behind the U.S. — of winning gold. But it got into a slew of foul trouble early Friday, which kept the defence from getting on track, which in turn kept the offence from getting easy baskets.
Canada ended up called for 25 fouls to Serbia's 22, and actually shot more free throws than the winners — 27-20.
"I think we lost because we didn't defend. I'll leave the officiating for whoever judges the officials," Fernandez said. "I can only say to them thanks for doing their jobs. Without officials we couldn't play the game of basketball."
Serbia led by 15 late in the half. That was the biggest deficit Canada had faced yet in this tournament; it faced 12-point deficits against Latvia and Spain, rallying to win both times.
Not this time, though. Serbia wouldn't give the lead up, and Canada's only medal hope now is bronze.
"I know these guys will do whatever it takes to go get that medal," Fernandez said.
Germany outlasts U.S.
In the other semi, Andreas Obst scored 24 points, Franz Wagner added 22 and Germany shredded the U.S. defence for much of the way in its first win over the Americans.
Obst hit the shot of the night, a 3-pointer with 1:15 left to put Germany up by four and just about snuff out a last-ditch U.S. rally. Germany led for 30 of the game's 40 minutes, the U.S. led for about 4-½, and there was little question who was controlling play much of the way.
"We knew the task at hand, and that was to go win," U.S. guard Austin Reaves said. "And we didn't do that."
The U.S., down by 10 midway through the fourth, nearly pulled off a comeback, getting within one point on two separate occasions in the final minutes. But the Americans never got the lead, and it was the Germans jumping and hugging as time expired.
Germany had been 0-6 against the Americans in World Cup or Olympic competition, usually getting blown out in those games.
Not this time. Once again, even bringing the only roster filled with all NBA players wasn't enough for the U.S. at the World Cup. The Americans finished seventh at the 2019 World Cup in China; this finish — third or fourth — will technically be better, but nothing other than gold was going to be satisfactory for USA Basketball.
