World Cup of Basketball by FIBA: Serbia defeats Canada 95-86 to advance to the gold medal game without Nikola Jokic. Serbia is going to compete for gold at the Basketball World Cup, despite the fact that its best player will not be available this summer.
In the World Cup semifinals on Friday, Serbia defeated Canada 95-86 thanks to 23 points from Bogdan Bogdanovic. Serbia, the tournament’s best-shooting team, was led by Ognjen Dobric and Nikola Milutinov, both of whom scored 16 points. Serbia had made 55% of its shots going into the day, but it missed 62% to end Canada’s hopes of winning gold.
For the second time in the last three tournaments, Serbia (6-1) is in the World Cup final. It lost to the U.S. in the 2014 last, and will confront either the Americans or Germany on Sunday night in the title game at Manila.
For Canada (5-2), which was trying to reach the World Cup final for the first time, RJ Barrett scored 23 points. On Sunday, the Canadians will try to win their most significant international medal since winning silver at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, when they will face the Germany-USA loser for the bronze.
Dillon Creeks scored 16 for Canada and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wrapped up with 15 — 10 beneath his competition normal entering the day.
After leading the Denver Nuggets to the NBA championship in June, Jokic decided not to play this summer to rest before the upcoming title defense. Serbia continued on, and afterward needed to refocus again in this competition after the shock of losing hold forward Borisa Simanic after he ended up requiring a kidney eliminated in the wake of getting elbowed in a game against South Sudan.
They will still have a medal on Sunday. The only question is whether to use silver or gold.
Canada had the second-worst odds of winning gold, behind only the United States, and started the tournament with an emphatic 95-65 victory over France, the current Olympic silver medalist. However, it was in foul trouble early on Friday, which prevented the defense from getting back on track and prevented the offense from scoring easily.
All of that was eaten up by Serbia. At the break, Serbia held a 52-39 lead, and Canada was furious about the foul situation.
It was called for 17 fouls in the first 20 minutes, including a technical on coach Jordi Fernandez late in the half, compared to 11 for Serbia. By the halftime break, all five of its starters had at least two fouls. Gilgeous-Alexander got his second foul with 3:27 left in the first; With a 9-0 run, Serbia responded and maintained its lead for the remainder of the half.
Serbia drove by 15 late in the half. That was Canada’s largest deficit thus far in this tournament; it confronted 12-point shortages against Latvia and Spain, energizing to win the twice.
However, not this time.
