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2008 Olympic Games, Day 1: Sunday, August 10, 2008
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The first day of the 2008 Olympic men's basketball tournament provided more evidence of Europe's overall strength while relying on Euroleague and Eurocop stars. European teams won five games opening day, the most they possibly could considering that Spain and Greece played each other in the rematch of the last World Championships title game. Spain prevailed again in that contest, joining predictable winners USA and Germany with 1-0 records in Group A. The big surprises came in Group B, where Lithuania rose up and knocked off defending Olympic champion Argentina despite squandering all of an 11-point lead in the final 4 minutes. The other big winner on Sunday in Group B was none other than Croatia, which blew out dangerous Australia by putting on a shooting clinic both inside and outside the three-point arc. The third winner in that group was Russia, which handed Iran a blowout. Point difference after one game put Russia in first place in Group A and USA holding the same spot in Group B, but there's plenty more basketball left, starting with the second games of the group stage on Tuesday.
 Team Russia got the Men's Basketball Tournament at the 2008 Olympic Games off in style with a 71-49 victory over Iran. The European champs scored the last 19 points of the first period to take a 24-5 lead that proved to be more than enough the rest of the way. CSKA Moscow guard J.R. Holden scored 19 points, EuroBasket 2007 MVP Andrei Kirilenko added 15 and Aleksey Savrasenko had 11 points and 4 assists to lead head coach David Blatt's men. Savrasenko had the honor of scoring the competition's first point with a free throw 12 seconds in and Holden soon converted a jumper for the first basket. Mohammadsamad Nikkhah’s three-pointer tied the score at 5-5 after two-and-a-half minutes, however Russia then took charge on both sides of the floor and reeled off 19 straight points – more than half coming from Holden and Savrasenko. Iran didn't quit and 8 unanswered points from Iran – including a pair of Nikkhah baskets – cut the gap to 10, but Kirilenko scored 6 during an 8-0 Russia push that helped his team go up 38-22 by halftime. Nikkhah and Hamed Hadadi kept Iran going in the third period, but back-to-back three-pointers from Holden and Sergey Bykov early in the fourth quarter doused Iran’s last hopes and led Russia to an opening game win. Nikkhah paced Iran with 16 points, Mahdi Kamrany added 11 and Hadadi recorded 9 points and 8 rebounds in defeat.
 Germany opened the play in Group B by blasting Angola 95-66. Chris Kaman scored 24 points in 18 minutes, Dirk Nowitzki added 23 in 23 minutes and Jan Jagla posted a double-double to lead Germany to the easy win. Angola hung around for the first period, but a 13-0 second-period run helped Germany to a 20-point halftime lead from which it never looked back. Nowitzki appropriately scored the game's first basket, but Angola quickly took a 2-5 advantage on a Carlos Morais triple. Three baskets by Kaman turned the tables, however Angola continued to battle and Eduardo Mingas's three-point shooting kept his team within 25-21 after 10 minutes. With the three-point shot remaining Angola’s only real threat, when the shots stopped falling, Germany –led by Kaman’s inside play – was able to reel off 13 unanswered points and take a comfortable lead. A Nowitzki triple made it 54-34 at halftime and Germany continued to coast throughout the second half. Jumpers by Steffen Hamann and then Nowitzki gave Germany a 63-36 lead early in the third quarter and any hope an Angolan comeback disappeared when Hamann recorded 7 straight points to enter the last period with his team leading 78-52. Germany's biggest lead came when Jagla of DKV Joventut scored in the paint to make it 93-64 with two minutes remaining. Jagla finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Hamann had 13 points and 4 assists for Germany. Mingas led Angola with 24, Morais scored 14 and Milton Barros had 10 in defeat
 A pair of European giants highlighted opening day at the 2008 Olympics men's basketball tournament in Beijing, China as Spain easily defeated Greece 81-66 in a replay of their World Championships final two years ago. Despite a high-pressure first half, Spain ran away early in the second as 11 of its 12 players reached the scoring column. Rudy Fernandez, MVP of the last ULEB Cup Final, led Spain with 16 points while Jose Manuel Calderon added 13 and Pau Gasol 11. Panathinaikos teammates Vasillis Spanoulis and Dimitris Diamantidis had 15 and 14 points, respectively, for Greece. Considered medal contenders to start the tournament, the two teams played a tense, defensive-minded first half replete with eight ties and eight lead changes. The biggest lead of the first quarter, which had six of those lead changes, came at the end, when Berni Rodriguez of Unicaja beat the buzzer with a tip-in to put Spain ahead 20-16. The second quarter unfolded similarly, with four ties and two lead changes as Spanoulis put Greece ahead again at 22-24. Spain's first push came after the game's last tie, 26-26. Another acrobatic tip-in, this time by Fernandez, highlighted a big 9-0 run that put Spain ahead 35-26 late in the second quarter before a Spanoulis three-point play cut the difference to 35-29 at halftime. Soon after the break, however, Spain put the game in its back pocket with a massive 13-0 run that included 5 points each from Juan Carlos Navarro of F.C. Barcelona and Calderon. When Gasol ended the run with free throws, it was 50-31. Greece tried to rally later in the third quarter, drawing within 12 points, 56-44, on a basket by Dimtris Diamantidis of Panathinaikos, but Spain not only turned back the run but boosted the lead as high as 21 points, 74-53, midway through the final quarter. Greece lowered the difference to 10 points at 76-66, but Spain expanded it with a triple on the final buzzer by Ricky Rubio of DKV Joventut. Greece was hurt by poor 11-for-24 (46%) foul shooting as compared to 22-25 (88%) for Spain.
 For the second consecutive time in the Olympics men's basketball tournament, the defending champions lost their opening game on Sunday when Lithuania outduelled Argentina for a 79-75 victory in Group A. Lithuania lost all of an 11-point lead with under 4 minutes left before Linas Kleiz's third triple of the final quarter landed with 2.1 seconds left and Euroleague MVP Ramunas Siskauskas of CSKA Moscow stole Argentina's next pass to seal the victory. Kleiza led five double-digit scorers for Lithuania with 13 points. Robertas Javtokas of Dynamo Moscow followed with 12 points, while Siskaskaus, Sarunas Jaskievicius of Panathinaikos and Marijonas Petravius of Lietuvos Rytas had 10 each. Manu Ginobili led Argentina with 19 points while Andres Nocioni added 15. In a slow-scoring first quarter, both teams established their inside games early as Luis Scola and Fabricio Oberto put Argentina up 2-6. Lithuania eventually took control of the scoreboard with an 8-0 run behind Petravicius and All-Euroleague second-teamer Ksistof Lavrinovic of Montepaschi Siena to make it 12-6. Argentina rallied to within 12-11, but another Petravicius basket kept Lithuania up 14-11 after 10 minutes. Argentina pushed ahead with a 6-0 run early in the second quarter to take a 16-17 lead on a layup by Ginobili, but Siskauskas answered from downtown. After that, Lithuania saw its advantage climb to six points twice before the first half ended 34-30. Argentina burst out after halftime with a 7-0 run to seize a new lead, 34-37. Rimantas Kaukenas of Montepaschi and Simas Jasaitis of DKV Joventut hit triples to put Lithuania back in front, while Siskauskas and Lavrinovic soon copied them to make it 49-45. Javtokas hit free throws to make it 51-45 after three quarters. When Mindaugas Lukauskas of Lietuvos Rytas opened the final quarter with a pair of three-point strikes, Lithuania had the game's first double-digit lead, 59-49. Meanwhile, Lithuania's defense was limiting Argentina to one shot usually taken far from the basket. A Ginobili three-pointer kept Argentina within 68-60, but a three-point play by Petravicius and the second triple in as many minutes by Kleiza made it 73-62 for Lithuania with under 4 minutes left. Argentina wasn't done, and in the next 90 seconds, put together a 2-13 run to tie 75-75 with 1:30 to play on Luis Scola's inside shot. Kleiza had the final say, however, hitting his clutch triple with 2.1 seconds on a pass by Jasikevicius before Siskauskas, after stealing and getting fouled, ended all doubt at the foul line.
 Croatia celebrated its first Olympics in a dozen years by storming to a blowout 82-97 victory over Australia with a shooting show in their Group A opening game. Croatia shot the lights out while cruising to early double-digit leads as seven different players made three-point shots on the way to a 12-for-16 team performance from downtown. Amazingly enough, two players who didn't even shoot from long range, veteran captain Niksa Prkacin of Cibona Zagreb and big man Marko Banic of Bilbao Basket, were Croatia's leading scorers with 16 points each on combined 12-for-13 two-point and 8-for-9 free-throw shooting. Altogether, Croatia shot 75% on three-pointers and 63 percent on two-pointers for the game. Zoran Planinic of CSKA Moscow and Marko Tomas of Real Madrid followed with 12 points each for the winners, while young Kresimir Loncar of Unics Kazan had a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Matt Nielsen of Lietuvos Rytas led Australia with 13 points. The game started close, with David Anderson of F.C. Barcelona forging a 12-12 tie for Australia late in the first quarter. Banic and Loncar combined for 6 points after that, however, as Croatia raced ahead 14-21 after one quarter. Early in the second, triples by Planinic and Loncar put Croatia's lead into double digits at 18-29. Nielsen tried to sustain Australia, but Planinic, Davor Kus of Unicaja and Prkacin soon combined to blow the game open at 24-42. Prkacin and Cibona teammate Marin Rozic kept the Croats up by 31-47 at the half. Banic returned as Croatia's go-to guy after the break, and was joined by Tomas, whose triple held off a brief Australia surge in the middle of the third quarter. By the time Prkacin and Besiktas BJL Cola Turka center Sandro Nicevic rejoined the Croatia scoring, the lead had soared to 50-69. With his 4 points in a row, Marko Popovic of Unics provided the high lead thus far, 21 points, before the third quarter ended 53-73. Prkacin, Planinic and Popovic turned back Australia's attempts at a comeback until Tomas rifled in a new three-pointer to make it 61-84 midway through the final quarter. Down the stretch, it was all that Australia could do to limit the final margin in case points differences figure in any tiebreakers at the end of the group stage.
 The United States made good on its promise as a medal contender by dismantling host China by 101-70 in their Group B opener on Sunday in Beijing. The game was close through only 14 minutes, after which Team USA pulled further and further ahead until its highest lead, 35 points, shortly before the final buzzer. Dwayne Wade scored 19 points for the winners, while LeBron James added 18, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard 13 each. The U.S. defense used a 14-2 steals advantage to score repeated fastbreak layups and dunks that broke the game open in the middle quarters. Yao Ming had 13 points and 10 rebounds for China, whose only other double-digit scorer was Zhu Fangyu, with 11 points. China took an early 2-6 lead on triples by Yao and Sun Yue, but the U.S. soon went ahead on a three-point play by James. China answered with a 0-5 run as Zhu hit a triple and Sun a fastbreak to make it 7-11. The U.S. reeled off the next 9 points, including a downtown blast by Bryant, but again China answered from deep. This time, Liu Wei launched to tie 16-16, although Wade and Howard finished the quarter with baskets good for a 20-16 U.S. lead. The teams traded baskets early in the second quarter until Wade and Howard again lifted Team USA in front, 28-21. Once again China rallied as Yao and Sun fueled a 5-0 run to a 29-29 tie. The U.S. turned up its defensive pressure then and, after another three-pointer kept it as close as 35-32, China started to wilt. James and Chris Bosh sparked a 10-0 run to the game's first double-digit lead, 45-32, and this time China couldn't answer as the half finished 49-37. More strong ball pressure after the break saw Team USA build on its lead as Bosh, James and Wade pushed the difference to 20 points, 65-45, late in the third quarter, which ended with a flurry of fastbreaks and a 74-48 score. The early fourth quarter saw Deron Williams score Team USA's first 7 points and Michael Redd bury a pair of three-pointers to make it 87-52. China tried to limit the damage with a late 2-12 run to make it 89-64, but the outcome was never in doubt and the U.S. aced its debut against the tournament hosts.
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