TORONTO – Now the Canadian men’s basketball team knows what winning feels like.
And losing too. Hopes are they can learn from both.
This week in Toronto at the Pan Am Games was always about the weeks, months and years ahead and the lessons that could be gleaned here, on the ground floor of what everyone hopes can be something that rises quickly and lasts, and applied when it matters most.
Perhaps most relevantly was what it feels like to win a huge game for your country – see Friday night’s victory over the U.S. – and to lose one less than 24 hours later, which is what happened Saturday evening at the Mattamy Athletic Centre when Canada was pushed aside by a more polished Brazilian team, 86-71.
The roars and fist pumps and jersey-popping that followed Canada’s win over the U.S. was replaced by a slow, sombre walk off the floor and back to the dressing room, heads down, shoulders slumped, while Brazil cut down nets, gave each other piggy back rides and carried on like they’d really done something important and worth celebrating.
Canada’s chance to celebrate that way on a basketball court is coming. Saturday wasn’t the time. The women earned it on Monday night with their gold-medal victory, and the men now have something to focus on.
"We’re making progress. It’s exciting. I think it was a terrific week for a lot of guys this week, to gain experience," said Steve Nash, general manager of the senior men’s team. "And the result was great, to beat the U.S. in the Pan Ams and make it to the gold-medal game and come up with a silver, it was an excellent result for us. In the big picture it was great because we are moving in the right direction. Guys are getting experience. In this tournament, for us to finish higher than we’ve ever finished, is fantastic."
On the other hand?
"Obviously we wanted to win," said Nash. "On another night, maybe we could have. But we were taught a little bit of a lesson tonight. I think it’s good. Guys need to learn. We played against a very experienced and smart Brazil team that moved the ball and makes you pay for your mistakes. Those are invaluable lessons. You can’t learn those through a textbook."
The events of the past week will pay dividends, most immediately beginning Aug. 31 in Mexico City when the Canadian men’s team attempts to qualify for the Olympic basketball tournament for the first time since 2000 and only the second time since 1988.
Sometimes you learn more from losing. There was some disappointment when Canada’s biggest names didn’t volunteer to play at the Pan Am Games, citing conflicts with their NBA teams’ wishes or contractual issues or injury. But their absence meant opportunity for others.
Would 18-year-old Jamal Murray have emerged as a star and a potential contributor to the effort in Mexico City if he was playing behind Cory Joseph and Tyler Ennis or Kevin Pangos?
"This helped me a lot," said Murray, whose 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime period against the U.S. propelled Canada into the gold-medal final. "I got to know a lot of the guys on this team and some great coaches around me. I got a lot of experience playing internationally. It’s a more physical game with a lot of little tricks you’ve gotta learn.”
Would Anthony Bennett – who led Canada with 18 points and nine rebounds against Brazil – have proven himself as one of Canada’s most reliable players if he had to fight for minutes or touches behind Tristan Thompson or Kelly Olynyk or Andrew Wiggins?
We’ll never know, but it made the tournament even more intriguing and perhaps makes things more difficult for Nash and head coach Jay Triano in the coming weeks as they figure out where some longtime contributors – Aaron Doornekamp, Carl English and Junior Cadougan, to name some – fit with the influx of more pedigreed talent.
"The team is going to be drastically different [in Mexico]," said Triano. "What we did [here] was we gave an opportunity to put on a Canadian jersey to guys who will wear it again in the future, some guys have been in the program who might not wear it again.
"We had the best players who were available based on circumstances. I thought they gave a great two weeks of effort to put ourselves in a position where we’re the first team to win a medal at the Pan American Games in the history of the men’s program. We were disappointed it’s not gold, but at the same time, I think it was a great two weeks for us."
The game itself was a mixed stew. Whether it was nerves or a collective mental and physical fatigue after the highs of the win over the U.S. and quick turnaround, Canada played its worst half of basketball in the tournament through the first 20 minutes.
It didn’t help that they were matched up against the best team in the event. Brazil is preaching continuity as they prepare to host the Olympics next summer and apparently brought to Toronto as many as eight players who they expect to be with the team a year from now. They came into the final as the best defensive team and the best three-point shooting team, and didn’t miss a beat against Canada.
They blew the game open with a 15-2 run to finish the first quarter and led 48-29 at half as Canada shot just 29 per cent from the field in the first half to 65 per cent by Brazil. The lead bulged to 25 midway through the third quarter and Canada’s inexperience showed too, most evidently when Andrew Nicholson, who came into the game as Canada’s leading scorer, fouled out after a series of off-the-ball wrestling matches topped off with a technical foul (which count as personal fouls internationally).
Canada did mount a comeback, led by the some of the youngest players on the team. Murray found his stroke briefly and Dillon Brooks – a 19-year-old – created havoc defensively. The peak came when Brooks, who played on Canada’s U19 team last month and will start his second year at Oregon this September, grabbed a defensive rebound, sprinted the length of the floor, scoring the basketball and converting a free throw to make it 69-63 with 7:22 to play.
But the youth comes with a price. Having come back from so far Canada seemed in a rush to finish the job and the outcome was fast break chances that resulted in turnovers, rushed threes missed and too many open threes conceded.
"That was our ride," said Murray. "That’s where we said they would allow us back into the game by missing a couple of shots and they did just that. We didn’t take advantage of it. That’s on us."
But its something to build from, or should be. Canada was the youngest team in the event with an average age of just 24. Even the reinforcements that are coming are in their early twenties. There are going to be rough patches.
"The most important [thing] for us is to come together and build a team that has some cohesion, understanding and has a little bit more experience where we can say in these moments, like against Brazil in the first half tonight, ‘Stay within 10 of them,’" said Nash. "… There was a stretch where it got away from us. And then in the second half, we needed too many balls to bounce our way when it was a six-point game, and they didn’t fall for us."
They will be in situations like that again, sooner than later. They may have a roster that looks different than the one they had here, but won’t be any more experienced.
And soon enough we’ll see if they learned their lessons – good and bad, the most important being the difference between silver and gold.