Team Canada has qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in men’s basketball. On Sunday, Canada advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIBA Men’s World Cup in Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan with an 88-85 win over Spain. This is the first time Canada qualified for the Olympic Games in men’s basketball since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
In Canada’s win over Spain in Jakarta, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Toronto, Ontario led the Canadian team with 30 points and seven assists. In all, three Canadians had double digits in scoring. Houston Rockets small forward Dillon Brooks of Mississauga, Ontario had 22 points and New York Knicks shooting guard RJ Barrett of Toronto, Ontario had 16 points. Brooks, Barrett, and Oklahoma City Thunder shooting guard Luguentz Dort of Montreal, Quebec all led Canada with five rebounds each.
Canada now improves to four wins and one loss after five games. They will next play Slovenia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Slovenia is led by Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, who leads the tournament with 26.4 points per game. The other three quarterfinals will have the United States versus Italy, Germany versus Latvia and Lithuania versus Serbia. Lithuania made tournament headlines on Sunday as they beat the United States 110-104.
