What's Coming Up? Lithuania vs Germany, September 3 - 7th Place

SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) - Germany and Lithuania will try to leave the FIBA World Championship on a high note as the Europeans face off in the battle for seventh place.

Germany came to Japan as 2002 bronze medalists and EuroBasket 2005 silver-medal winners.

National team boss Dirk Bauermann is pleased his side is even playing this game.

"Regardless if we finish seventh or eighth, I can say now that we have achieved our original goal, which was to finish among the top eight teams in the world," said Bauermann.

"Even if our dream of a medal didn't come true, we could still fly home on Monday satisfied."

After losing to the United States in the quarter-finals and then France in the classification round, Dirk Nowitzki wants to finish this competition with a positive.

"The losses against the Americans and the French were really tough. Now we have to see that we find a good end to this tournament," said Nowitzki, who carried Germany to the silver medal at last summer's EuroBasket.

The MVP from the 2005 European event, Nowitzki has again put up big numbers, averaging 23.9 points (second to Yao Ming 25.3), a tournament-high 9.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists (sixth among players in the quarter-finals).

Still, the 2.13m star has had three games of less than 16 points and shot 43% from the field for the tournament, including a three of 12 night against the United States.

"I haven't been as consistent at this tournament as I was at the EuroBasket in Belgrade," he admitted.

The Lithuanians are ready for this tournament to end.

After beating Brazil in Group C to clinch their place in the last 16, Antanas Sireika's team survived against the Italians to make the quarter-finals.

They were man-handled by Spain and then blew a 11-point lead in the final 2:40 in losing to Turkey in overtime of the classification round.

The Baltic nation has plenty to improve upon. The team commited 28 turnovers against the Turks.

They average more than 21 turnovers per game, while dishing out just more than 15 assists per contest.

Lithuania are also making just 65% of their free throws in the tournament.

Center Robertas Javtokas is among those who has struggled at the line.

He said: "The way we're playing right now, we're going to have to fix a lot of things if we want to finish seventh."

One positive for the Lithuanians is the offensive output of Linas Kleiza. Against Turkey, the 21-year-old forward had his fourth game with 14 or more points.

By David Hein
FIBA