Lithu-ZANY-a! Team USA, LeBron James Eke Out Tough Victory

How Coach K adjusts going forward will be as important as how Team USA’s point guards adjust. We may not get a representative taste against Argentina as group play ends, but we will in the knockout round.

One would have expected Team USA to storm out of the locker room and take control of its preliminary-round game in the Olympics against Lithuania after a closer-than-expected first half. Well, so much for that. Instead, it was Lithuania that kept the pressure on, and it only trails, 78-72, after three quarters in London.

Team USA led by four points at halftime, but Lithuania scored the first five points of the half to take a one-point lead. Team USA rallied to regain the lead, stepping up its defensive pressure, but poor shooting has kept this game close. Team USA has missed 12 of its 31 free throws and has made just two of its last 17 three-point attempts.

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Team U.S.A. is coming off the destruction of Nigeria in their last basketball game in the 2012 Summer Olympics. The United States scored the most points in an Olympic basketball game ever, but likely won’t repeat that blowout performance against Lithuania on Saturday morning.

The United States’ game against Lithuania begins at 9:30 a.m. ET and can be seen live on the NBC Sports Network.