JAKARTA, Indonesia (Sept. 1, 2023) – Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team dropped a 69-65 decision to Brazil to open the second round at the FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup 2023 on Friday.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high 23 points in the loss, while Lu Dort scored 17 points in his return to the court after missing the previous two games. Kelly Olynyk had nine points and seven rebounds in the loss.

“Good game, tight game obviously,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They were the better team in the second half. They wanted it a little more. Especially with the rebounding, that really hurt us. We lose, we learn from it. Onto the next one.”

Brazil was led by a 19-point, 13-rebound double-double from Bruno Caboclo and eight points and 10 assists from Yago Santos who came up huge down the stretch to help Brazil pull out the victory.

After a slow start, Canada battled back in the second quarter, holding Brazil to just 11 points as they built a 10-point lead at the half. They led throughout the third quarter, but a last second three-pointer from Lucas Dias, assisted by Santos, trimmed Canada’s advantage to seven points through three. After Dort was called for a technical foul between the two quarters, the lead was down to three to six to start the fourth.

The offence stalled after halftime as Canada scored just 28 points in the second half and were outscored 24-13 in the fourth quarter.

Canada shot 33 percent from the floor in the loss, while giving up 40 percent shooting to Brazil and being outrebounded 43-37. Santos matched Canada’s assist total himself as Brazil recorded 17 assists to just 10 for Canada.

“Give Brazil a lot of credit for the win,” Fernández said. “They played really hard. Defensively, I think we were fine. When a team shoots 40 percent from the field and 19 percent from three, you should have a chance, but offensively we were not willing to do anything for each other. Space the floor, move the ball, move bodies. When you play like that, it’s really hard to win. Today was an example. [We had] 10 assists to nine turnovers. Shot 33 from the field and 27 from three. We didn't deserve to win.”

Fernández pointed to the game being a learning moment for the young Canadian team.

“It’s good because it’s adversity for us,” Fernández said. “We haven’t faced anything like this and I believe in our guys. They’re going to work. They care. We’re going to watch film and we’re going to prepare for Spain. It’s going to be a fun game. We’ll be ready for the next one.”

Canada led by 12 with 1:03 remaining in the third quarter. From there, Brazil scored 13 straight points spanning the end of the third and start of the fourth quarter as Canada didn’t score its first points of the final frame until a floater, plus a free throw from Gilgeous-Alexander with 6:45 remaining.

After Caboclo and Dort traded buckets, Canada led by two with 4:31 remaining, but Santos went to work, driving to the rim while getting fouled by Dwight Powell who fouled out of the game with 4:07 remaining. Santos made both free throws to tie the game once again.

Canada struggled to score down the stretch, and were unable to slow Santos who scored on back-to-back buckets inside to put Brazil ahead by four, 64-60, with 26 seconds remaining. After a turnover from Canada, Gui Santos hit a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game with 13 seconds remaining. After free throws from Brooks and then a three-pointer from Barrett, Caboclo hit one of two free throws and Brazil escaped with the three-point victory.

“They did a good job getting some second chances,” Dort said. “They kind of dominated the glass. It’s hard when we give them second chances. They shot the ball well from the field and they really used those second chances. I feel like that’s kind of what really hurt us.”

With Canada losing to Brazil and Latvia having defeated Spain earlier on Friday, all four team’s in group L now have identical 3-1 records. Canada will now face Spain on Sunday with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals.

“We’ve all played a lot of games and we’ve all been in those types of situations where we really need a win to achieve our goals,” Dort said. “We’ve got to have a short memory. Spain is a good team, we’ve played them already [in exhibition]. We’ve got to regroup, watch film. We have bigger goals and we have the right group of guys for that. We’ll all lock in and do it game by game. We’ll be ready for the next game.”

Canada didn’t perform like the team that had gone 3-0 in the group phase against Brazil, but Fernández is confident the group will be up for the challenge moving forward.

“I love the guys that I work with,” Fernández said. “I trust that we’re going to watch it, own it, give our opinions, move on and get better and be ready for the next game. You do this job for games like this. It’s a game where you win, you’re in, you lose, you're out and that’s the fun part. It’s not just us. It’s a lot of people watching in their homes, supporting their own countries and we’re extremely excited to get to that point.”

Tip-off on Sunday is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET / 6:30 a.m. PT. Fans in Canada can catch all of the action live on Sportsnet, as well as streaming on SN Now.