Big challengers Lithuania quiet but confident

RIO DE JANEIRO (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Lithuania know what Olympic Games are all about. They know about the competitiveness, and the luck that's sometimes needed to have success.

This is a country that has played at every Olympics since 1992 in Barcelona, when it captured the first of three consecutive bronze medals. It finished fourth in 2004 and 2008 and eighth in 2012.

How far will Lithuania go this year? Jonas Maciulis, who led them into the EuroBasket Final in France last year, spoke to FIBA.com about their chances.

FIBA.com: A lot of people like Lithuania this year and their chances of not only reaching the podium but of giving the USA problems should you meet.
Maciulis: I've read about these things from journalists, that we're strong enough to win a medal. Not to beat Team USA but to be good and be competitive. These things are hard to predict, especially in an Olympic Games. You have five games in the group stage and then three more games. Many things can happen, some bad luck, an injury. We did come here with big expectations and we expect this, yet we keep it inside. We don't talk out loud. Because besides us, 11 other teams came for medals and all of them are really, really strong. And everyone believes in their chances. I am not saying that we don't believe, but we have to believe it quietly.

Maciulis faced the USA at Spain 2014

FIBA.com: The USA play such a different style of game and have so much athleticism yet Lithuania has really had some big battles with them, historically. How have you been able to do it?
Maciulis: I think we have enough athletic players, too, all of us. We have three NBA players (Jonas Valanciunas, Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Domas Sabonis). We have enough players to compete, to fight, to run, to jump, so we've always found a way to play good defense and confuse them a little to have a good game against them.

FIBA.com: Have you started to believe in yourselves more and more as the summer has gone on?
Maciulis: Our team is ready to play the highest level of basketball. We have to believe in ourselves and we started to believe in the last friendly games. We played against Brazil, we played against Australia - really good teams. We won against Australia and lost by one point to Brazil. They were really hard games, good games. We have chances and we believe in ourselves but all of this, we have to show it on the court.

FIBA