The Kirilenko Show

For the first time since 1993 Russia is in the EuroBasket finals, and will get a shot to win the title for the first time since 1985, back when it was still known as the USSR.

Russia shocked favorites Lithuania on Saturday night in the Palacio de Deportes as David Blatt led a brilliant group who took control of the game from the tip and never trailed, but on top of it showed great character.

Lithuania, coming to this game unbeatable in EuroBasket 2007, chased after the Russian side from the first moment.

They made a heroic comeback from minus 19 to a tied game, but Russia didn't blink for a second.

Andrei Kirilenko, in an amazing individual performance of 29 points and eight rebounds, carried his team to a big win, and didn't allow anybody to take this win from his team.

"It was a very physical game, but we played great defense," he said after the buzzer.

"Our goal coming to this EuroBakset was to reach the Olympics. We've done that and now we're aiming at the finals. If we play as we did tonight, nobody can count us out."

Ramunas Siskauskas was the only one who stepped up for Lithuania. He scored 30 points, including five shots from long range, which cut into Russia's lead time after time, but couldn't secure the win alone.

Russia played 40 minutes of very aggressive defense and didn't allow any Lithuanian to get anywhere close to the rim without being hammered down.

The bad side was that with six minutes on the clock Russia had three big men in big foul trouble – Morgunov, Khryapa and Savrasenko had four fouls each, but eventually none fouled out.

The good side was Lithuania's front line was out of the game.

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source : eurobasket2007.org