Lithuania vs. France: 2014 FIBA 3rd Place Game Live Stream and Preview
For Lithuania and France, the journey is far from over at the 2014 FIBA World Cup after losses in the semifinals.
Saturday, the two sides will meet in the 3rd Place Game for one final fleeting shot at glory on the international stage before the United States takes on Serbia in the final.
Lithuania encountered Team USA at precisely the wrong time as Mike Krzyzewski's team seemed to hit full stride, while France rallied and lost a heartbreaker at the hands of Serbia late.
Below, let's profile the two teams and everything else there is to know about Saturday's showdown.
When: Saturday, September 13 at 12 p.m. ET
Where: Palacio de Los Deportes, Madrid, Spain
Live Stream: ESPN3
The Road for Lithuania
After a somewhat mediocre performance in Group play, Jonas Valanciunas of the NBA's Toronto Raptors got off to a hot start in the knockout stages and never looked back.
In fact, Valanciunas had a coming out party of sorts in the team's first knockout game against New Zealand. En route to the 76-71 triumph, he did much to counteract 26 points from Corey Webster by posting 22 of his own to go with 13 rebound and three blocks.
Valanciunas then took a back seat to Renaldas Seibutis in the next round, despite what was supposed to be an epic matchup beneath the rim between he and Omer Asik.
It wound up being a 73-61 victory over Turkey. Seibutis scored 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, including a perfect mark on all three of his attempts from deep and four attempts at the foul line.
As hinted, though, the streak of good fortune for the Lithuanians came to a screeching halt in the semifinals against Team USA. Valanciunas poured in 15 points, as did Mindaugas Kuzminskas, but the impressive dominance the team had displayed beneath the rim to that point was nullified by a ridiculous shooting night from the Americans.
Led by Kyrie Irving's 18 points, Team USA shot 47.5 percent from the field while Lithuania mostly relied on trips to the foul line for production, attempting 42 shots. It obviously was not the desired end result, but Valanciunas and Co. can take solace in the fact that if they connect on more than just 17 field goals, the will stand a great chance in Saturday's game.
The Road for France
Led by NBA players such as Nicolas Batum (Portland Trail Blazers), Evan Fournier (Orlando Magic), Rudy Gobert (Utah Jazz), and Boris Diaw (Spurs), France followed a somewhat similar path through the knockout portion of the bracket after a showing that can only be described as lackluster in the Group stage.
Thanks to a consistent second half in which the French side scored 46 if its 69 points, the team scored a five-point win over Croatia to advance. Batum led the way with 14 points despite missing on all six of his attempts from deep.
Still, Batum's performance was a sign of much bigger things to come.
France then did the unthinkable by taking down Spain and an elite front line consisting of Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka. That trio was limited to just 22 points in the 65-52 upset, 17 of which came from Pau.
Diaw led the way for France there, scoring 15 points while Gobert controlled the glass with 13 boards. He said after the fact that his team rallied around his efforts in the paint.
"I knew everybody was expecting me to help the team," said Gobert, per ESPN.com's Mark Woods. "Everybody knew I could stop them. That was just my mission. Everyone else played great offensively. I just had to stop Pau. He's one of the best players in the world and if you stop him, they're not as strong."
Like Lithuania, though, the French appeared gassed Friday in the semifinals against Serbia in the 90-85 loss. Even a ridiculous 35 points from Batum was not enough to stop the Serbian side, which shot 57.1 percent from the field.
As Sportando documents, though, Batum's recent momentum seems to bode well for Saturday's contest:
Indeed, the game that takes a back seat to the final seems sure to entertain with plenty of offense.
3rd Place Game Preview and Prediction
As one can glean from their respective paths, this one has the making of an inside-out battle of epic proportions.
Valanciunas and Lithuania can rather easily take over a game in the paint, control the tempo via the glass and steal a win, especially with France coming off less recovery time after a loss. As Adam Papageorgiou of Magicbasketballonline.com muses, the team might be too gassed to give 100 percent:
Then again, that same time gap could mean Batum and the French side come out red hot, continue their superb shooting ways and run the Lithuanians out of the gym.
Expect that to happen Saturday. France is on fire at the moment, and not only is it impressive the team shut down the likes of Spain in the paint, players such as Diaw (13 points and 10 rebounds in Friday's loss) put things over the top as he can once again help turn the tide beneath the rim.
Regardless of the winner, kudos goes to both sides for making it this far. Lithuania managed to do it without Mantas Kalnietis, while France made a deep run sans Tony Parker and Joakim Noah.
Still, it is difficult to get past the spotty shooting from Lithuania at times, and although both teams lost in the semifinals, France has a ton of positive momentum in comparison to Lithuania.
Prediction: France 88, Lithuania 84
