Canada's basketball team won medals at the World Cup for the first time
In the bronze final, the Canadians beat Team USA.
Canada can take credit for this year's World Basketball Championship that ended this weekend in the Philippines. The national team of the country passed the preliminary group stage without defeat, having confidently won 3 matches in a row and coming out of the group from the first place. In the second group round, the Canadians won 2 more matches out of 3 possible, losing only to the Brazilians, with the first place going to the quarterfinals.
In the first playoff match, Canada faced Slovenia, and the match ended with a score of 100 — 89. In the semifinals, the Canadians lost to Serbia 86-95, so they could only count on bronze. The fans were not optimistic about the fact that the bronze final opponent of the Canadian team was the U.S. national team. Out of 22 previous meetings between the teams in different years, the Canadians won only one. Nevertheless, Canada managed to win the first World Championship medal in the team's history. It is also only the second medal for the team at a world competition. Before that, Canada's only medal was a silver medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Dillon Brooks was the brightest player of the match against the United States. The Ontario native had an outstanding tournament, going from a negative fan reaction to himself to the jam-packed arena chanting "MVP!". In Sunday's game, Brooks scored 39 points, a World Championships record, grabbed 4 rebounds and had 5 assists. His play was one of the key factors that allowed the Canadians to break the U.S. team in overtime. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and RJ Barrett also contributed with 31 and 23 points respectively, while Gilgeous-Alexander also tallied 12 assists. Final score: 127— 118.
Dillon Brooks was named the tournament's best defensive player. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the all-star, averaging 24.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
This tournament is also important because, for the first time since 2000, the Canadian national team qualified for the Olympic Games. The Canadians won a ticket to the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris in the second-round match against one of the strongest opponents — the Spanish national team.
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