U.S. gets stunned by Lithuania but still qualifies for Olympics
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 pizzazz 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 in Manila, Philippines: 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 of the Warriors 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.
“In (the) locker room, I said to our guys to celebrate shortly and save all the energy and emotions also for the upcoming game,” Lithuania coach Kazys Maksvytis said. “It's very hard. We got one of the biggest wins in our career, but we don't have time to celebrate this. Serbia's waiting and they're not waiting for us with flowers and the red carpet.”
The loss — the first for the U.S. in 10 games this summer — came on a night when the Americans clinched a berth in the Paris Games.
And the loss won't change the mission going forward in the World Cup medal chase, either. Win Tuesday, win Friday and win next Sunday, and the Americans are gold medalists. Sounds simple. But Lithuania showed it won't be.
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