U.S. advances despite World Cup loss to Lithuania

No longer undefeated, Americans will battle Italy in quarterfinals.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The U.S. is assured of going to the Paris Olympics. That’s good. It also has a quarterfinal game at the World Cup awaiting Tuesday. That’s also good.

Thing is, the only celebrating in Manila on Sunday night was done by the guys in the other locker room.

It will not be an undefeated summer for the Americans, not after Lithuania — with a mix of pizazz from outside and power down low — led for all but a few very early moments against the only World Cup team composed entirely of NBA players.

The final score: Lithuania 110, U.S. 104. The winners went a staggering 9 for 9 from 3-point range to open the game and set a tone, bullied their way to a 43-27 rebounding edge and had seven players in double figures, with two others just one point shy of joining that club.

“We’re fortunate that the loss doesn’t hurt us in terms of our goal, which is to win the gold medal,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “But it’s a great game for us to experience because this is FIBA. There’s some great teams that have continuity, that understand what they’re doing, that execute, and I thought Lithuania was brilliant tonight. They deserved to win.”

Vaidas Kariniauskas scored 15 points, Mindaugas Kuzminskas added 14 and Lithuania (5-0) wound up winning its second-round group, which really only matters for seeding purposes. Lithuania gets Serbia in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, while the U.S. will face Italy.

The other quarterfinals are Wednesday: Germany vs. Latvia and Canada vs. Slovenia.

Italy 73, Puerto Rico 57: At Manila, Stefano Tonut and Giampaolo Ricci each scored 15 points and Italy reached the World Cup quarterfinals with a win over Puerto Rico. The Italians are assured of their best World Cup finish since placing sixth in 1998.

Canada 88, Spain 85: At Jakarta, Indonesia, Shai Gilgeous-alexander scored 30 points and Canada rallied from 12 points down entering the final quarter to not only clinch a quarterfinal berth but grab a spot in the Paris Olympics as well.

Latvia 104, Brazil 84: At Jakarta, Latvia — in the World Cup for the first time — ran away from Brazil in the second half to turn a close game into a rout and made the quarterfinals.

Serbia 112, Dominican Republic 79: At Manila, Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 20 points and Serbia advanced to the quarterfinals, a result that eliminated the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic (3-2) was led by Karl-anthony Towns with 25.

Germany 100, Slovenia 71: At Okinawa, Japan, Dennis Schroder scored 24 points and Germany rolled past Slovenia in a matchup of teams that knew they were headed to the quarterfinals.

Luka Doncic led Slovenia with 23 points, and Klemen Prepelic had 12.

Australia 100, Georgia 84: At Okinawa, Patty Mills scored 19 points and Australia had five players reach double figures in a relatively easy win over Georgia in a game that ended the tournament run for both teams.

Montenegro 73, Greece 69: At Manila, Nikola Vucevic scored 19 points for Montenegro .