Lithuania will play a friendly with the Great
Britain basketball team game before the Olympics as both national teams will
prepare for the tournament in Houston, thanks to the relations to Houston
Rockets from both sides.
Great Britain, the hosts of the Olympics, gave a
promise to Lithuanian Basketball Federation to warm-up before the Olympics in
Houston. The sides have agreed for a friendly game at some point in June.
GB basketball team will prepare for the
Olympics in Houston, where Chris Finch, the head coach of GB team, works as an
assistant coach for NBA side Houston Rockets.
Lithuania also is related to the club as
Arturas Karnisovas, former Lithuanian national team player, works as
international scout for the Rockets.
GB will participate in the Olympics as the
hosts while Lithuania, 5th placed in last year’s
EuroBasket, will compete in pre-Olympic tournament for three last places for
London 2012. Pre-Olympic tournament will take place in Venezuela from 2-8 of
July.
Lithuania and GB actually met in a group
stage of EuroBasket 2011 and the home side beat Britons 80-69 on the first day
of the competition. GB finished the group with 2-3 and did not qualify for the
second round.
Only EuroBasket finalists, Spain and France, directly qualified for the Olympics. The teams placed 3-6 in EuroBasket 2011 will compete in pre-Olympic tournament and three out of 12 best sides will get a ticket to London 2012.
