Until now, the United States men's basketball team had steamrolled opponents leading up to their match with Lithuania. It was clear to everyone that the schedule wouldn't be as easy as it had been with previous opponents like Tunisia and Nigeria providing historic scoring opportunities for Team USA. But today at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Lithuania proved themselves to be a strong opponent for the Americans and a potential contender for the gold medal. In the end, the Americans won 99-94.
The Americans simply could not score at will against an athletic Lithuanian team, and there were numerous lead changes down the stretch. The Lithuanians shot well all day at 58 percent from the floor and Linas Kleiza led all scorers with 25 points. Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Kevin Durant handled the scoring load for the U.S. with 20, 20 and 16 points respectively.
Team USA faces Argentina on Monday in their next game to wrap up group play.
Read more of our Team USA coverage at this StoryStream. Be sure to check out SB Nation Kansas City as well. Also visit SB Nation's Olympic hub for even more coverage.