Canada Loses Close Game to Brazil

Canada hangs in tough through three quarters but fouls and poor shooting doom the Road Warriors as Brazil pulls away in the final quarter.  Check out the latest Can Ball Blinders Game Report.

So I missed the game again since I was at work, again.  Sometimes it just doesn’t work out to try to get ahead at work.  Anyway, I was still running the live stats feed and here is the Blinder report of the Canada vs. Brazil.

Let’s start off with I was not surprised that Canada had dropped the game to Brazil but I was impressed that Canada hung in for the first three quarters of the game.  Canada was really not supposed to be in this game and yet they managed to hang in for most of the game.  Good for the team.  This shows that there is some heart and mental toughness left on this squad.  This is a definite bonus for the team going forward but some things could have been better and this is what I gathered from the stat lines.

Field goal percentage.  This was a glaring aspect if you look to the boxscore.  Canada took eleven more shots than Brazil but made one less basket.  For the game Canada shot 38% from the field going 18 for 47.  The three point shooting was a little better at 33% (5 of 15) but still not up to snuff for a perimeter shooting team.  The Canucks were still in the game despite the terrible shooting but the shooting should have been better and needs to be. The shooting needs to be better regardless of who they play but particularly against the better teams. 

Foul situation.  There was a twelve foul disparity between Brazil and Canada with Canada committing 26 fouls.  The fouls led to 18 of 21 made free throws by Brazil but it also led to foul trouble for the team.  You have to assume that since two key players played a less than ideal set of minutes that fouls were a primary reason, particularly captain Jesse Young who only played 10 minutes.  The team needs to manage the foul situation much better against a perennial international power team like Brazil particularly when in the end.  The fouls may have been the difference between winning and losing.

The last thing that I thought unusual was the stat lines for Carl English, Joel Anthony and Jesse Young.  Well, really my issue was with the shooting numbers for the three aforementioned players.  Now I know that Anthony is a good player and he is an NBA player at that, but on a team with the gunners it has Anthony had no business taking twelve shots and only making three.  English conversely only took three shoots making one.  The twelve shots Anthony took could have been better off going to Carl English who is a better shooter and could have made a three or two to cut the lead.  Young also suffered from lack of shot attempt syndrome only taking three shots but that may been more to do with his only playing 10 minutes but he did make two of this three shots.  Since I didn’t watch the game I can’t say with any authority that there was a conscious effort to get Anthony the ball or not.  The bottom line for me is that the shooters, English, Young and others like Andy Rautins and Tyler Kepkay did not shoot the rock and in a game when the shooting was down, these players pulling the trigger could have been the difference. 

Canada played a good game after coming off a blowout loss the day before.  The game against Brazil showed that the Road Warriors are able to dig deep and are a capable team when they put the effort in.  The Brazilians simply outlasted Canada in this game.  The above mentioned aspects did contribute to a less than favorable outcome for the Senior Men but what is clearly visible is the that the team has enough mental toughness to win.  Once these all aspects all get ironed out Canada will be in more games than their out of.  Today’s game against Panama should be a winnable game for Canada.  If the kinks can be smoothed out for the Road Warriors’ final game at the tournament then they will have something to look back on going into the last qualifying tournament for the World Championships which is where Canada will likely end up. 

* Canada is set to tip off against Panama at 1:30pm *