page_title: Lithuania men's national basketball team
section_title: 2016 Rio Summer Olympics
hierarchical_section_title: Lithuania men's national basketball team / History / 2016 Rio Summer Olympics
caption_attribution_description: English: Lithuanian basketball player Robertas Javtokas
context_page_description: The Lithuania men's national basketball team represents Lithuania in international basketball competitions. They are controlled by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Lithuania. Despite Lithuania's small size, with a population of less than 3 million, the country's devotion to basketball has made them a traditional force of the sport in Europe.
  The Lithuanian national team won the last EuroBasket tournaments prior to World War II, in 1937 and 1939. The 1939 team was led by Frank Lubin, who helped popularize basketball in the country and was called the "grandfather of Lithuanian basketball". Following the country's annexation by the Soviet Union during the war, Lithuanian players frequently formed the core of the Soviet national team. The most prevalent example was the 1988 Olympic basketball gold medal-winning team, which got most of its scoring from four Lithuanians: Valdemaras Chomičius, Rimas Kurtinaitis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Arvydas Sabonis.
  After the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1990, the national team was resurrected.
context_section_description: The Lithuanian men's national team automatically qualified into the 2016 Summer Olympics without the need to compete in the qualifying tournament after being finalists of EuroBasket 2015. Lithuania, China, Australia and the United States are the only countries to compete in consecutive Olympiad since 1992. On June 8, the twenty candidates list was published, who were invited to the training camp. On June 20, first training camp was held. During the first preparation phase in Lithuania, the national team reached 5 of 5 victories, including victory versus the European champions Spain national team in a farewell game 87–83 in Kaunas. Just three days later, Lithuanians reached another victory over Spain 76–78 in Málaga. The preparation stage in South America was less fortunate with the first game being cancelled due to unsuitable conditions, then the first loss occurred to Argentina after controversial refereeing. The only victory there was achieved versus Australia 68–81. The friendly games were finished with another loss, this time to Brazil 64–62.
  On August 7, the opening game versus the host team Brazil national team was played. After demonstrating powerful game-play in the beginning, Lithuanians won the first half by 29 points (58–29), though the second half was completely different, which was surprisingly lost by 23 points. Lithuania won the game just 76–82. After the game, one of the team leaders Jonas Mačiulis said that "this can't happen again". Following it, Lithuania faced Nigeria national team. After playing two quarters point-to-point, Lithuanians spurt in the third (29–13), led by Mačiulis who scored 14 points during it, and won the match 89–80. Afterwards, Lithuanians overcome Argentina national team, who was yet undefeated in a close game 81–73 and qualified for the quarter-final. The successful start was slowed down by Spain national team, which crushed Lithuania 59–109. It was second highest loss in the history of the Lithuanian national team history. The group phase was ended with another loss to Croatia national team 81–90 and Lithuania finished third in the group.
  The quarterfinals adversary were Australia, who Lithuania beat to win the last two bronze medals. This time the "Boomers" did not give a chance to Lithuania, leading all the way to a 90–64 rout with strong performances by Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova. Lithuania finished 7th in the final standings. Following the Olympics, long-time captain Robertas Javtokas retired from the national team. After a successful 4-year lap, head coach Jonas Kazlauskas refused to return to the national team for more summers and left it for a second time. On October 25, 2016, he was replaced by Dainius Adomaitis. On January 20, 2017, EuroLeague legend and former Lithuanian star Ramūnas Šiškauskas was named one of Adomaitis's assistants.
caption: After spending eleven summers with the national team, Robertas Javtokas retired from the team in 2016.
exif: {"Image Copyright": "Augustas Didzgalvis"}