Takeaways from Canada’s Olympic opener loss to France

Here’s what we learned from Canada’s opening Olympic matchup against France.

First-half shots need to fall for Canada to see success

Shay Colley and Kia Nurse led Canada with 11 points each, but the team shot just 32% from the field. Bridget Carleton, who is shooting at a rate of 43.5% from 3 this season in the WNBA, was held to just eight points, going 2-of-6 from beyond the arc.

The Canadians scored 34 points in the second half compared to just 20 in the first, but with the French side taking advantage in the second quarter, going on a 22-0 run, Canada could not recover from the deficit.

Natalie Achonwa, Syla Swords and Nirra Fields were all held to 20% shooting, scoring just one basket from the field, and Canada’s bench contributed 14 points compared to France’s bench chipping in 36.

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France’s defense too much for Canada to overcome

France played lockdown defense on the Canadians, holding them to a historic two points in the second quarter of the game, an all-time low for any quarter at any edition of the Games — men or women.

Shots weren’t falling for the Canadians, and they committed 25 turnovers in the loss, allowing 19 points from turnovers for France. Kayla Alexander, a threat on both sides of the ball for Canada, continued to play strong on the boards, collecting 10 rebounds, but she scored just six points. She didn’t get looks under the basket as often as she usually does.

Aaliyah Edwards tallied eight rebounds for Canada, as the team dominated France on the boards, but France’s stealthy defense — grabbing nine steals, with Gabby Williams taking five of them alone — flustered the Canadians, while also forcing them to be physical as France stood its ground in the paint.

The atmosphere in the arena also contributed to throwing Canada off its game, which featured a crowd of 20,211 at Pierre Mauroy Stadium. “It’s always challenging playing against the home country. It was a great atmosphere,” Colley said postgame. The Canadian men’s team, which won its tournament opener against Greece on Saturday, was also in the crowd, a stark contrast from playing in front of nobody in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Canada still taking positives from tough loss

Despite a disappointing result for Canada, the second half of the game saw many positives, including outscoring France 18-16 in the third quarter, and finding a scoring rhythm in the second half of the game.

Edwards, a rookie for the Washington Mystics, will continue to play a big role for Canada defensively. She knows that Canada needs to make every possession count moving forward in the group stage.

“Not to take possessions off. Possession means everything to us. I think that we’ll go back, watch film and do what we need to do better,” Edwards said.

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Staring off the game with the lead and leading coming out of the first quarter were positives for Canada. Building on that start, not allowing another scoring run that France went on in the second quarter and taking less-rushed shots are all things that the team will review before going up against Australia on Thursday.

The game was less than ideal for the Canadians, but facing the reigning Olympic bronze medalists in their first game was always going to be a test, and being able to bounce back against Australia would show Canada’s true resilience.

“The things that we did that helped us be successful, I think the first five minutes of the game, we came out really aggressive and we played Canada basketball,” Edwards said. “[We] just got to look back on the things that we did positive out of that and keep to it for the rest of the tournament.”

Canada will still face Nigeria and Australia in Group B action. Nigeria pulled off an upset of world No. 3 Australia, as the Opals had a game similar to Canada, in which they turned the ball over 26 times and made just eight of 18 free throws in a 75-62 loss.