page_title: Lithuania men's national basketball team
section_title: EuroBasket 2005
hierarchical_section_title: Lithuania men's national basketball team / History / EuroBasket 2005
caption_attribution_description: English: 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: EuroBasket 2005 in Serbia and Montenegro would feature many absences in the Lithuanian squad, such as Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Saulius Štombergas, Arvydas Macijauskas, and Donatas Slanina. Though, the team had Ramūnas Šiškauskas, one of the biggest European stars of that time. For preparation, the Lithuanian team attended tournaments in Europe, Asia and Australia, being represented in some of them by the reserve roster - such as in the 2005 Stanković Continental Champions' Cup in Beijing, which the Lithuanians won after defeating 4 of the 5 opponents. On September 1, 2005, a friendly with Ireland had Lithuania achieve the 600th victory in the team's history, 97–62 in Kaunas.
  Starting the tournament as defending champions, Lithuania proved their favoritism by beating Turkey, Croatia and Bulgaria with solid differences and an average of 88 points. However, the knockout rounds had the team eliminated with an underwhelming performance, scoring only 47 points in a quarterfinal with France. National team coach Antanas Sireika said: "We played the worst game in the championship and I think that the main reason of this is that the players failed to deal with the psychological tension. This is the main losing reason". The only consolation was the remaining opportunity to qualify into the World Championship, which the Lithuanians achieved by beating Russia and Slovenia for fifth place. Lithuania won 5 of 6 games in the tournament. Consequently, the competition scheme was questioned in its reliability.
caption: Robertas Javtokas, one of the Lithuanian squad leaders in 2005
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Robertas Javtokas in the mix zone after game", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS-1D Mark II", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:14 20:15:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "288", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1070", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10958", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1000", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:09:18 02:52:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:09:18 02:52:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "726", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "220000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "585500/189", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}