It appears that the Canada-wide dreams of winning an Olympic basketball medal will have to wait another four years.
Canada was favoured as one of the top men’s basketball teams at the Paris 2024 Olympics, but host France had other ideas.
Taking on Canada in today’s quarterfinal, the French dominated Canada early and often, winning the matchup by a 82-73 score.
Canada cut the lead to as little as five in the fourth quarter, but were unable to close the gap any further.
Basketball 🏀 : RJ Barrett avec un panier de trois points plus qu’important! C’est encore permis d’y croire pour le Canada.
🇫🇷 61-55 🇨🇦@CanBball #Paris2024 #jeuxolympiques #rcsports pic.twitter.com/MKjbZusVZ1
— Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) August 6, 2024
Canada trailed 23-10 after the opening 10 minutes and 45-29 at halftime, and were unable to overcome a massive size advantage on the floor, with no players on their roster registering at over seven feet tall.
The matchup was quite the experience for Canada in experiencing the highs and lows of international basketball.
While they were emotionally led by 7-foot-4 reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama and 7-foot-1 four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, it was a series of unsung heroes leading the way on the offensive end for France, including Real Madrid’s Guerschon Yabusele, who put in 22 points.
Meanwhile, former Atlanta Hawks second round pick Isaïa Cordinier, who currently plays in Italy for Virtus Bologna, put in 20 points.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada with 27 points, but it was not enough in the disappointing loss.
The undersized Canadians were unable to pull off what would’ve been a historic victory. But while neither Gobert nor Wembanyama really contributed much on the offensive end, combining for just seven points (all from Wembanyama), the French team pulled together to grind out the win.
Canada’s appearance in the tournament was their first Olympic berth since 2000, having clinched their appearance in Paris with a third-place showing at last year’s FIBA World Cup. But having 11 NBA players on their roster — second most behind the USA, with 12 — Canada returning home without any hardware will sting for much of the next Olympic cycle.
In other quarterfinal action, Germany defeated Greece 76-63, while Serbia had a strong second half comeback over Australia to win 95-90 in overtime. The Americans, who are favoured to win their fifth straight gold medal in the event, take on Brazil at 3:30 ET/12:30 PT later today in the final quarterfinal of the tournament.
On the women’s side, Canada went 0-3 in group stage play and failed to advance to the quarterfinals, while the women’s 3×3 team fell in the bronze medal game yesterday to the United States.