page_title: Lithuania men's national basketball team
section_title: FIBA World Championship 2006
hierarchical_section_title: Lithuania men's national basketball team / History / FIBA World Championship 2006
caption_attribution_description: English: Basketball World Cup 2006 in Japan. Game for 7th place between Lithuania (in white) and Germany Deutsch: Basketball-Weltmeisterschaft 2006 in Japan. Spiel um Platz 7 zwischen Litauen (in Weiß) und Deutschland
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 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan had Lithuania matching the 7th place from their 1998 debut, but many saw this performance as an under-achievement. Lithuania started the tournament with a narrow 2-point loss to Turkey, followed by an overtime defeat to eventual finalists Greece which had Lithuania suffering 25 turnovers. Confidence was restored with wins over Qatar, Australia, and Brazil, that qualified Lithuania for the knockout rounds against Italy. They won the match by 3 points 71–68, although Arvydas Macijauskas fouled Gianluca Basile during a 3-point attempt in the dying seconds which gave Italy the chance to level the score, but all 3 free throws were missed. Lithuania lost the quarter final match against eventual champions Spain by 22 points, conceding a total of 28 turnovers during the game. The consolation tournament began with another defeat: Lithuania lost a 12-point lead over Turkey in the last 3minutes of regulation, and the resulting overtime had Turkey achieving  a 95–84 victory. Lithuania still won the seventh place match against Germany, 77–62. Sireika resigned soon after the championship. On 28 December 2006, Ramūnas Butautas, son of Stepas Butautas, was announced as the new coach of the team.
caption: Lithuania-Germany game
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