It's a good time to be a Canadian basketball fan

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Basketball season is picking up steam

The NBA all-star break is behind us. March (in all of its madness) is around the corner. The international schedule is starting to get busy.

It all means there will be plenty of basketball to consume in the coming months — especially for Canadian fans. Here's everything you should know:

The men's national team plays two key games this weekend. Both 2023 World Cup qualifying contests will take place in a bubble in the Dominican Republic — on Saturday against the host team, and on Sunday against the U.S. Virgin Islands. The first should provide a real test for Canada, which is coached by Raptors assistant Nate Bjorkgren while Nick Nurse stays with the NBA club. At No. 20, the Dominicans are ranked just two spots below a Canadian squad not only without its NBA stars, but some top players in Europe too. The Dominican is also a notoriously difficult place to play. Still, Canada should be a lock to advance to the next round of qualifying, having already beaten the Bahamas twice. And with seven FIBA Americas teams set to play in the World Cup, it would border on disaster if Canada didn't eventually book its ticket to the tournament in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. Not that the Canadian men's program isn't immune to disaster.

The women's team caught a break. Its own World Cup qualifier, which took place a couple of weeks ago, looked like it might be tricky. Canada would have to return to Japan — the site of its Olympic disappointment — and place in the top three of a four-team group without injured star player Kia Nurse and short on practice time under new coach Victor Lapeña. But when Belarus dropped out due to COVID-19, Canada automatically received its berth to September's World Cup in Australia. The team still played both its remaining games, collapsing in an OT loss against Japan before rebounding for a blowout win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bridget Carleton, arguably Canada's best player in Tokyo, starred in the victory, making 11 of her 12 shots for 26 points. Nurse, Carleton and Natalie Achonwa remain the only three Canadians with WNBA contracts for the 2022 season, which begins in May.

The Raptors are on the upswing. An all-star performance from Fred VanVleet coupled with what's becoming a career year for Pascal Siakam has lifted Toronto right into the playoff mix. As the seventh seed right now, the Raptors would still have to win an elimination game to reach the post-season. But they're only one game away from sixth and even 2.5 games behind third in a crowded Eastern Conference. The unofficial second half of the Raptors' season begins tonight in Charlotte before things get spicy quickly with a home-and-home against Brooklyn next Monday and Tuesday. The eighth-seeded Nets are just 2-8 in their last 10, but Kevin Durant could return soon along with trade deadline addition Ben Simmons, who's yet to make his Nets debut. As things currently stand, Kyrie Irving won't be allowed to play either game due to vaccine mandates in Canada and New York.

Jamal Murray's return looms over the West. The Canadian Denver Nuggets star hasn't played a competitive game since tearing his ACL last April. Coming back from that injury typically takes around a year, which would put Murray on track to rejoin reigning MVP Nikola Jokic in time for the playoffs, though the Nuggets haven't put a timeline on Murray's return. Jokic alone has them sixth in the West, but Murray would make them a truly scary playoff sleeper. Elsewhere, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander returned from his own injury last night and continued to impress on and off the court for a bad Oklahoma City squad alongside Montreal's Lu Dort. Three Canadians — Chris Boucher, Khem Birch and Dalano Banton — have become fixtures in the Raptors' rotation. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who played well for Canada at the Olympic qualifier, was traded twice around the deadline and wound up with a contender in Utah.

Canadians could shine in March Madness. Top NBA prospect Shaedon Sharpe joined Kentucky in January after graduating high school early to become eligible for this year's NBA draft. The team says he won't play this season, though he'd certainly provide a boost. Andrew Nembhard helped No. 1 Gonzaga reach the final last season, and he's back to finish the job with a championship in his senior season. Zach Edey, a seven-foot-four, 295-pound bruiser for fourth-ranked Purdue, is one of the most intriguing players in the sport. Arizona's Bennedict Mathurin might be the highest-picked Canadian in the upcoming NBA draft. On the women's side, three Canadian Olympians — South Carolina's Laeticia Amihere, UConn's Aaliyah Edwards and Arizona's Shaina Pellington — made the Final Four last year and are poised for possible returns on top-12 teams. Amihere, the first Canadian woman to dunk in a game when she was 15, did it again in warmups this week:

Quickly...

The sports fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. As the IOC urges everyone to move events out of Russia and Belarus, the Champions League final in May was officially relocated to Paris, Formula One's Sochi Grand Prix in September was cancelled and the International Ski Federation removed all of its upcoming World Cup events in Russia. After making the final of the Dubai Championships, Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev wrote "no war please" on a courtside camera. Watch that moment here, and read the latest on how the sports world is being affected here.

Women's hockey doesn't stop. Still buzzing off that Canada-U.S. Olympic final? There's plenty more where that came from this weekend. The Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association's Dream Gap Tour — featuring many of the top non-Olympic North American players — picks up with two games on Saturday and two more on Sunday, all in Ottawa, for its latest showcase. Catch all the action on CBC Sports here beginning tomorrow at 12 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, about one month remains in the Premier Hockey Federation season as games continue this weekend featuring the league's top team, the Toronto Six. The PHF is dealing with some internal turmoil after commissioner Ty Tumminia recently announced she would leave the position after the playoffs. She only stepped into the role last August.

Denis Shapovalov double-faulted his way out of Dubai. The Canadian had a golden opportunity to reach his third career singles final with a matchup against Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely in today's semi. And he even served for the match in the third set after splitting tiebreaks in each of the first two. But Shapovalov couldn't close the deal and eventually fell in yet another tiebreak where the deciding factor was an early double-fault — one of his 14 in the match, to just seven aces. Vesely, ranked 123rd, beat Novak Djokovic in the quarters and will meet Rublev in the final. Read more about the match here.

You're up to speed. Have a great weekend.