Canada head coach Jordi Fernandez refuses to dwell on his two stars’ foul woes as they bowed out of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 semifinals, Friday.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks already incurred three fouls each just in the first half alone, indeed a tough predicament for a team that couldn’t find any rhythm against a Serbia team that were simply on-point on both ends.
The NBA cagers still provided offensively with Brooks scoring 15 and Gilgeous-Alexander chiming in 15, but the Road Warriors still lost, 95-86.
“It’s part of the game of basketball,” the youthful mentor said in the postgame presser at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. “I think it’s like two teams of 12, five of each team are on the court, and there’s three officials.
“Those officials, their job is to judge, and our job is to coach. Those two guys had two fouls and I had to sub them out. From there we kept playing, and we kept playing hard,” he furthered.
“I leave the officiating for whoever judges the officials. I can only say to them thanks for doing their jobs. Without officials, we couldn’t play the game of basketball,” he continued.
“We just gotta be better.”
What Fernandez lamented was the way they defended, for it ultimately dashed their hopes of reaching the championship round on Sunday.
“We were OK offensively, we were atrocious defensively. When a team shoots 62-percent from the field and 45-percent from 3, obviously something was not done well,” said the Spanish coach as he glanced at the stat sheet.
Still, all isn’t lost for Canada. The crew can still salvage a bronze medal against the United States to cap off a breakthrough run.
“Just to go back home with a medal, I think, is a great accomplishment,” said Fernandez. “None of these guys have ever been in this position. And I think that to win it would mean that we fought for something.
“But we know that we can still do better. We want to leave this tournament being hungry and being thirsty and building this program all the way to the top.”
