Canada to play U.S. for men's basketball World Cup bronze after pair of semifinal upsets
CBC
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."
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."
