Luka Doncic congratulates Canada and says Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is ‘one of the best in the world’

The Canadian men’s national team just made basketball history this Wednesday as they secured their best-ever World Cup finish after beating Slovenia in the tournament’s Quarter Finals. The North American team beat Luka Doncic’s nation with a convincing 100-89 victory. 

“Congratulations to Canada,” said the Slovenian star. “They played great. A very physical game. They have one of the best players in the world, so it was really tough to guard him.”

The Mavericks guard was talking about none other than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was outstanding once again, after leading all scorers with 31 points to his name, along with a game-high 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals. The Oklahoma star was clutch, scoring 8-for-12 and 14-for-16, dropping nine of his 31 in the last quarter.

Shai’s boxscore compared to Luka’s boxscore today:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
31 PTS, 10 REB, 4 AST, 66.7% FG

Luka Doncic
26 PTS, 4 REB, 5 AST, 40% FG pic.twitter.com/CuemOHRQpi

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) September 6, 2023

According to the Canadian player, it was crucial to slow down Doncic’s efforts. “I think we just kept coming,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have two high-level defenders, two of the best in the world at their positions. We just wanted to keep throwing bodies at him, keep throwing him different looks. Obviously, a player of that calibre, you want to keep mixing things up for him.”

Despite their best efforts, the Dallas superstar still finished with a team-high 26 points while hitting 8-for-20 from the field. However, Dillon Brooks frustrated his attempts time and time again until he got ejected during a timeout, following another ejection by Doncic shortly afterward.

“I think he’s the best defender, (along) with Lu Dort, the best perimeter defender in this competition,” head coach Jordi Fernández said of Brooks. “Today was a defensive clinic of leading with his hands, leading with his chest, showing his hands, pressuring full-court, and if you don’t think that, you don’t like basketball.”

The Canadian trainer celebrated his player for their historic semi-final berth. “Congratulations to these guys, they just made history,” he told reporters after the contest. “This is the best position so far that Canada has qualified (at a World Cup). Congrats to our guys, congrats to the country and congrats to Canada basketball.”

Shai’s teammates also recognize him as the ‘head of the snake’ that could lead Canada to their first-ever World Cup title

After a very tight first half to the match, the quarter-finals contest was tied 50-50 at the break. From then on, Gilgeous-Alexander led the charge to surpass the Europeans by double figures for the first time in the match.

“I think what you see from our team is that it could be anybody,” RJ Barrett said. “Of course, Shai is the head of the snake, he’s always going to do what he does, but it could be anybody. Last game, it was Dillon. The game before that, Lu played well. It could be anybody on any given night and I think that’s one of our strengths.”

Check out the highlights from this FIBA game which saw Canada reach their first-ever run into the World Cup semi-finals:

The North American squad also out-rebounded Slovenia 38-30 and finished the contest shooting 51% from the floor while keeping their rivals to 44% shooting.

“Tonight was a fight and these guys executed at a high level,” coach Fernández said. “I think we pushed the pace for 40 minutes and it went our way. I want to give all the credit to these guys.”