The curse of beating USA: Lithuania the latest victim

MANILA (Philippines) - One could think beating the United States at a FIBA Basketball World Cup is a great thing. But the last two decades of the competition has shown it can also be almost a curse.

And Lithuania became the latest victim.

Lithuania shocked the basketball world by scoring well over 100 points in a thrilling 110-104 win over USA. Next up in the Quarter-Finals was laser-focused Serbia, who dominated the flat and low-energy Lithuanians 87-68 to reach the Semi-Finals.

 

The Lithuanian team insisted after the loss to Serbia, that the euphoria of beating the USA had been long forgotten before the Quarter-Finals.

"The game against the United States, as you can see now, means nothing. Just history," Tadas Sedekerskis said afterwards. "Now we don't have any chances to fight for the medals. We knew that. We didn't think: Oh we are good because we won against United States. Serbia have great players like (Bogdan) Bogdanovic and others. So it was easy to forget. Maybe for the fans no, but for us players I can guarantee you 100 percent that we forgot that game."

 

Still, the basketball gods have not been kind to teams who knock off USA in recent World Cups. The high of beating the Americans as well as the physical and mental strain have proven too difficult to recover from and refocus in the following knockout game.

Looking through the recent history books, in fact, shows that the teams who have beaten USA are then defeated by a large margin the next game.

 

Greece in 2006 shocked the world when they beat USA 101-95 in the Semi-Finals, upsetting a USA team featuring LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Global Ambassador Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard all 24 years old or younger. But the Greeks were then steamrolled in the Final by Spain 70-47.

At the last World Cup, France eliminated the Americans in the Quarter-Finals 89-79. But Les Bleus were then bounced themselves by Argentina 80-66 in the Semi-Finals.

 

There is also Argentina making history in 2002 in becoming the first team to beat a USA team made up of NBA stars since those were allowed to play a decade earlier. That Argentina win came in the final game of the second group stage. The South Americans beat Brazil in the Quarter-Finals and Germany in the Semi-Finals before succumbing to Yugoslavia in the Final.

The 2002 champion, Yugoslavia, is the last team that beat USA in a knock-out round in the Quarter-Final of the World Cup 2002 and went on to win the competition. Since then, the curse as been deadly.

And now Greece's 2006 team and the France side from 2019 have company with Lithuania 2023.

FIBA