Utah Jazz: Kirilenko, Russia lose to Croatia

BEIJING — Andrei Kirilenko scored a team-high 18 points to lead four in double figures, but Russia dropped its first Olympics pool game Tuesday to undefeated Croatia, 85-78.

Kirilenko finished with 18 points, with two 3-pointers among his 5-of-11 shooting from the floor. He added a team-best six rebounds as well as three assists, three blocked shots and a steal.

Croatia, led by Marko Popvic's 22 points and Zoran Planinic's 22, took the lead for good in the second quarter en route to a 42-35 halftime lead.

Russia (1-1) next faces Australia on Thursday, while Croatia (2-0) meets Lithuania (2-0) in a pairing of unbeatens.

In an earlier Group A game Tuesday morning, Lithuania downed winless Iran (2-0) 99-67 to remain perfect. And later Tuesday, Argentina was to take on Australia in a pairing of teams that lost their openers on Sunday.

Group B's schedule for later Tuesday included USA (1-0) facing Angola (0-1), Germany (1-0) meeting Greece (0-1) and Spain (1-0) squaring off against host China (0-1).