Team Canada and Kelly Olynyk are on loss away from an early elimination

Team Brazil shocks Kelly Olynyk and Team Canada.

The heavyweight showdown is on hold, as Team Canada got rocked against Team Brazil on Friday, Sept. 1. The heavily favored Canadians were supposed to sweep the second round, and head into the single-elimination portion of the tournament 5-0, matching their United States continentmen.

Same for Team Span, who was also supposed to go into the final game with Team Canada undefeated. Spain lost to Latvia, setting up a wild finish to the tournament, with Canada, Spain, Brazil, and Latvia all sitting with a 3-1 record.

Canada wasn’t supposed to struggle with Brazil and now with Spain on the horizon, there exists a real chance that Team Canada could be sent home very early and in doing so, would see Jazz forward Kelly Olynyk go home early as well.

Olynyk has been the everything man for Team Canada so far. He’s had games where he scored in the double digits and others where he nearly put up triple-doubles. He’s been a great asset for the club, but after their loss to Brazil, they can’t afford to lose again.

Right now, there is a scenario where either the winner of Brazil and Latvia or the winner of Spain and Canada will go on. So there exists a world where Canada goes home with either Brazil or Latvia. Well, technically, the losing teams in this portion of the bracket will go on to the Classification Games section of the tournament.

The winners of this bracket will go on to an eight-team, single-elimination bracket. Where the winner will win the coveted FIBA World Cup trophy and title.

and for Canada to even get into that spot, they have to beat one of the young powerhouses, Team Spain. Spain and Canada were expected to make it out of the round, but now with a loser-goes-home situation all but assured, it’s no longer a possibility for both teams to move on.

One team has to lose and that team will end up being seen as having a disappointing run in the World Cup.