OR National basketball Facing once again Lithuania (21:00, ERT1, Novasports Start, Live from Newsit.gr) with the two teams having a rich past in big events and especially in Eurobasket. The delivery of our representative band with “Lietua” and the most exciting matches from the past.
Although national basketball has a tradition in favor of 16 wins in 27 games (including friendly), however, at Eurobasket level, Lithuania has 4/6 winning games against “blue whites”. The last meeting of the two even took place at Mundobasket in 2023, where in Manila Lithuania deprived the national qualification of the ‘8’, dominating 92-67.
Today’s game is, of course, completely different from then, as Vassilis Spanoulis is now coach, who replaced Dimitris Itoudis, while Yiannis Antetokounbos is also in the roster, whose name was absent from the Mundobasket.
The nights of Spanoulis and Slouka
Of course, there were nights when Greece took its revenge. The win in the 2017 Eurobasket 2017 stands out in Istanbul, where Kostas Sloukas led the National with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in a 77-64 victory. Another major victory was recorded in the 2006 World Cup, when Greece’s “Dream Team”, in the process of the final, dominated Lithuania with Vasilis Spanoulis (15 points).
The bitterness not forgotten
The heaviest defeat in an official event came to the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, when Lithuania crushed National with 99-66. In that match, the current Lithuanian coach, Rimas Curtinitis, had 15 points with 5/8 three -pointers. In 2004, at the Athens Olympics, Greece suffered a new defeat with 98-76, while in 2007, in the small final of the Spanish Eurobasket, Lithuania deprived the National Bronze Medal (78-69), despite Nikos Zisi’s 23 points.
In detail the previous matches
22/06/1995 (Athens-Eurobasket) 73-89
30/07/1996 (Atlanta-Olympic Games) 66-99
29/06/1997 (Jirona-Eurobasket) 73-66
23/06/1999 (Dijon-Eurobasket) 64-82
23/08/2001 (Marousi-Filiko) 75-73
19/08/2004 (Greek-Olympic Games) 76-98
20/08/2006 (Hammamatsu-Mundobasket) 81-76
16/09/2007 (Madrid-Eurobasket) 69-78
17/09/2011 (Kaunas-Eurobasket) 69-73
09/09/2017 (Constantinople-Eurobasket) 77-64
01/09/2023 (Manila-Mundobasket) 67-72