BEIJING — Defending Olympic basketball champion Argentina stumbled to a 79-75 loss to Lithuania on Sunday despite 19 points from Manu Ginobili.

In what had been a tight game, the San Antonio Spurs shooting guard and the rest of Argentina were nearly shut down in the third quarter as Lithuania ran to a 51-45 lead.

Ginobili and Houston Rockets forward Luis Scola were restricted to just two points each in the period.

Argentina rallied and, with 2:40 left, Ginobili hit a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to four points. Quickly regaining possession, Ginobili bounced a 3-pointer off the rim that was buried by Toronto Raptors guard Carlos Delfino to make it a two-point game, and with less than 90 seconds left, his pass connected with Scola inside the paint for the layup to even the score.

But with 2.1 seconds left in regulation, Linas Kleiza nailed the 3-pointer and captain Ramunas Siskauskas drilled a free throw to pull off the four-point win, setting off celebrations among the raucous flag-waving Lithuanian cheering section.

Kleiza led the scoring for Lithuania, which finished fourth at the 2004 Athens Games, with 13 points. Robertas Javtokas, a 2001 Spurs second round draft pick, added 12 points.

Delfino scored 13 points for Argentina and Scola had 10.

Australia played Croatia and the NBA star-laden United States took on host China in later matches Sunday.

In the Olympic tournament's opening game, American-born Dzhon-Robert Kholden scored a game-high 19 points to lead European champion Russia to a 71-49 win over Iran, while Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki scored 23 points on 78 percent shooting as Germany overwhelmed Olympic rookie Angola 95-66.

Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman, who received his German citizenship only last month, was sharper still, shooting 83 percent to lead Germany with 24 points.

"I think we're a good team. We'll find out just how good on Wednesday, when we play Spain," Kaman said.

Nowitzki said the win left the team composed going into the rest of the tournament.

"We knew we needed to win this game. Spain is coming up, so we have to get better as we go," the 2007 NBA MVP said.

Spain downed Greece 81-66 with Portland Trailblazers signee Rudy Fernandez scoring a game-high 16 points and the Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol adding 11.

The scoring gap belied what was a fast-paced and closely matched-game on the parquet, with the result largely determined by free throws: Greece shot just 11 of 24, while Spain missed only three out of 25.

"We played an intense game," said Gasol, the leading scorer at the Athens Games, where Spain lost to the Americans to finish fourth. "I'm really happy we started with a win and that's always important in a big tournament like the Olympics."