The defending Olympic basketball champion Argentina failed to show victory and stumbled to a narrow 79-75 defeat to Lithuania in its opening Group A match on Sunday.
Manu Ginobli's 19 points wasn't enough to carry his country in what is supposed to be sweet first win. The opening loss clearly stung Ginobili. In what had been a tight game, the San Antonio Spurs' shooting guard and his teammates were nearly shut down in the third quarter as Lithuania ran up a 51-45 lead. Ginobli and Houston Rockets forward Luis Scola were restricted to just two points each in the period.
Argentina rallied and, with 2:40 left, Ginobli sunk a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to four points. Quickly regaining possession, Ginobli bounced a 3-pointer off the rim that was buried by Toronto Raptors guard Carlos Delfino to make it a two-point game, and with less than 90 seconds left, his pass connected with Scola inside the paint for the layup to level the score.
But with 2.1 seconds left in regulation, Linas Kleiza nailed a 3-pointer and captain Ramunas Siskauskas drilled a free throw to pull off the four-point win, setting off celebrations among the raucous, flag-waving Lithuanian cheering section in the 18,000-seat Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium.
Kleiza led the scoring with 13 points for Lithuania, which placed fourth at the 2004 Athens Games. Robertas Javtokas, a 2001 second-round draft pick for the Spurs, added 12 points. Delfino scored 13 for Argentina and Scola 10.
Argentina next faces Australia on Tuesday night.
Credits to FoxSports.
