On Wednesday, San Antonio Spurs players Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, and Nando De Colo advanced to the Semi-Finals at the 2013 Eurobasket with the French National team. Their Italian Spurs teammate Marco Belinelli would try to do the same on Thursday, however Lithuania would deny Italy any chance of advancement.
In a game that was close to the end, Lithuania ended up defeating Italy 81-77 as Belinelli led the Italians with 22 points, two rebounds, and two steals while shooting 8-of-17 from the field in 36 minutes of play. With the loss, the Italian National team will not finish as one of the top-four automatic bids in the 2014 FIBA World Championships in Spain next year.
Italy will however still try to earn a place to qualify for the World Championships by competing in the losers bracket at Eurobasket. Italy will face Ukraine on Friday in the Classification game for 5th to 8th place.
In the video below, check out Belinelli's dunk late in the third quarter. Even his Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili tweeted about the dunk.
With a Belinelli dunk ends the 3rd. Italy up 1. Great game! ~ Con volcada de Belinelli termina el 3ro. Italia x 1. Partidazo!
— Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) September 19, 2013
