Toronto Raptors: Nick Nurse’s Canada eliminated from Olympic qualifying

Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who brought Canada their first championship when he guided Kawhi Leonard and company to the title in 2019, has taken ownership of the Canadian national team with the hope of ending their Olympic drought that extends all the way back to the days of Steve Nash.

Canada is sporting eight NBA players, and they appeared to be massive favorites against a Czech Republic team that was going to be led by Chicago Bulls point guard Tomas Satoransky. The Canadian team featured stars like RJ Barrett, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Andrew Wiggins on their side.

Canada looked dead in the water, but some timely shooting helped them erase a 10-point deficit in less than a minute, with Wiggins making the shot that forced overtime. Unfortunately, the lead wouldn’t hold, and Czechs ended Canada’s Tokyo hopes thanks to a gut-wrenching 3-pointer.

Satoransky hit a 3 in overtime that put the Czech Republic up for good, eventually taking home a 103-101 victory. Despite having more players in the NBA than any country that is not the USA, Canada once again will not participate in the Olympics.

Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse couldn’t get Team Canada over the hump.

Nurse tried to install the same style of play that has helped the Raptors over the last few seasons, involving fast-placed play with tons of ball movement. While it did help Canada from an offensive point of view, the change wasn’t radical enough to end the drought.

Barrett, Alexander-Walker, and Wiggins all topped 20 points in this game, and Nurse received a boost from Trey Lyles. However, with players like Cory Joseph and Luguentz Dort struggling to contribute a ton on the offensive end, one uneven performance from a deep squad cost them a chance at the Olympics.

In addition to Sataronsky scoring 18 points, 3 of which came on that dagger that ended the hopes of the Canadian team, 37-year-old Blake Schilb went to town on Canada, scoring 31 points. Canada put forth a spirited effort, but the bad mojo that has been following this team hasn’t dissipated.

To be fair to Nurse, he was just a few lucky bounces away from taking away the Czech team might’ve been what finally takes team Canada back to the Olympic stage for the first time since the Sydney Olympics at the turn of the millennium. Looks like Canada will have to wait four more years before getting another crack at it.