Rio de Janeiro: Spain’s bid for a third consecutive trip to the Olympic men’s basketball finals suffered a severe setback on Sunday, while hosts Brazil took hope from a failed rally against Lithuania.

Croatia upset second-ranked Spain 72-70 as Dario Saric blocked Pau Gasol’s game-tying attempt at the final buzzer and Lithuania held off Brazil 82-76 as Group B preliminary round play began.

There was no rally in the other opener as Argentina ripped Nigeria 94-66 behind Facundo Campazzo’s game high of 19 points and five assists and Luis Scola’s 18 points and game-high eight rebounds.

Croatia and Spain exchanged leads six times in the final minutes, the last time coming when Krunoslav Simon stole the ball from Sergio Rodriguez and made a layup to put Croatia ahead 69-67.

Simon added two free throws to stretch the margin, Nikola Mirotic answered with a 3-pointer for Spain and Saric added a free throw to create the final margin.

However, Saric’s most telling impact was still to come when the Philadelphia 76ers bound power forward blocked two-time NBA champion Gasol’s last-ditch effort.

‘It’s always nice to block a big player, a big name in Euro basketball like Pau Gasol,’ Saric said. ‘This is the cherry on the cake, my block, because this team deserved this win because this team fights all the game.’

Spain had been talking of a third chance against the American collection of NBA stars in the Rio final. Now they might be in a fight to be one of four advancing from the group.

‘We can’t even dare to make those kind of thoughts,’ Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said. ‘We have to win the next game. Period. Then we can think of the third one.’

Gasol had 26 points and nine rebounds while Mirotic added 19 points for Spain.

‘I think we are the best in difficult situations like the one we’re in now,’ Mirotic said.

Bojan Bogdanovic, a guard for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, led Croatia with 23 points. Saric had five points, seven rebounds and five assists.

‘As much as this victory means to us, we don’t want to be a two-day wonder team,’ Croatian captain Roko Ukic said. ‘We will approach every game like it’s our last. Bottom line, we need to keep it going.’

Next for Spain is Brazil, which is fifth but just behind the Spaniards in the early table.

A loud flag-waving crowd kept Brazil going as the hosts nearly erased a 30-point deficit before falling to Lithuania.

‘The fans were great. They were able to lift them up and almost get them over the finish line,’ Brazil coach Ruben Magnano said.

Leandro Barbosa, Brazil’s top NBA player, scored a game-high 21 points.

‘In the second half we came out with a different attitude. That brought the fans,’ Barbosa said. ‘We almost won. But it was too late.

‘We’re going to come back with a different mindset. It will be all right. There’s a lot for us to play for.’

Mantas Kalnietis led Lithuania with 16 points and eight assists, Paulius Jankunas added 15 points and seven rebounds.

But squandering a big lead took much of the joy away from the Lithuanians’ triumph.

‘We’ve got to move forward,’ center Jonas Valanciunas said. ‘We cannot be satisfied with this victory.’