The Canadian media is doing a piss-poor job following the Canadian national team. It may have something to do with the team getting off to a less than stellar 0-3 start. They lost to Italy, Greece and then Serbia and Montenegro.

The Greece loss was particularly bad with a final score of 89-59 (so bad, that no one even bothered with a game recap). No one is even hiding how bad the Canucks are.

German coach Dirk Bauermann plans to use this weekend’s FIBA World Championship warm-up games against Canada to integrate Dirk Nowitzki into the team.

The Canada games on Friday and Sunday are Germany’s first tests in the build-up to next month’s event in Japan.

Bauermann’s team then play at the Supercup in Berlin the following weekend, with Italy, France and Turkey also involved, before finishing their preparations with three games in a tournament in China.

“It’s very important that we improve our game in each match,” Bauermann told the Neues Deutschland newspaper.

The German team arrived in Hamburg on Wednesday without Nowitzki, who stayed at home for an extra 24 hours following the death of his grandmother.

“The Canadians are certainly the weakest opponent, and that gives us the chance to integrate Dirk Nowitzki into the team without any pressure,” the coach added.

Maybe their Coach can use that as bulletin board material.

Kendall did well in the opening game against Italy. He led the team with 16 points and 7 rebounds. There’s nothing about his numbers in the third game, though he is credited with being the only other player doing well in the game aside from Carl English.

That game against Germany could be a massacre.

UPDATE (11:25 pm): Holy spit, Canada won.
Dirk Nowitzki was far from his NBA superstar form as Germany lost to Canada in a friendly on Friday night.

Carl English from VidiVici Bologna scored 18 points and Jermaine Bucknor added 12 as the North American side, who went on a decisive 16-2 run in the fourth quarter to take control, won 73-68.
…
Canada and Germany started the game cold, but the hosts used a 6-0 run to open a 13-8 lead after seven minutes. Canada took advantage of Germany’s inexperienced bench as English, Bucknor and Levon Kendall – the star of Canada’s team at the FIBA U21 World Championship in Argentina last year – all hit three-pointers in an 11-4 Canada run to lead 19-17 after one quarter.

Kendall scored 7 points on 3-7 shooting in 18 minutes (PDF). Germany plays Canada again on Sunday.