If you win the semi, then you lost finals. Etc. etc. Third medal match is para-olympics. Lets see, 1992 lost semi vs USA, 1995 lost finals vs us, 1996 lost semis vs us again, 1997 lost qtrs vs us again, 1998 lost vs Russia in qtrs, 1999 lost vs Spain QTRs, 2000 lost vs USA semis, 2001 lost vs Latvia 1/8 finals, 2002 no part., 2003 won gold, 2004 lost vs Italy semis, 2005 lost vs France QTR, 2006 lost vs Spain in QTRs, 2007 lost vs Russia semis, 2008 lost vs Spain semis, 2009 didn't make it out of group in round 2, 2010 lost vs USA semis, 2011 lost vs Macedonia in QTRs, 2012 lost vs Russia in QTRs, 2013 lost vs France in finals, 2014 lost vs USA semis.
That's where you stand. Like I said Rubens Barrichelo.
This happens literally everytime when Lithuanians are involved in a debate about achievements. It always becomes a measurement of strength and neediness to confirm they are indeed a great nation. During my 3-week visit to Lithuania @EB2011 it was almost impossible to have a debate where someone wouldn't literally boast about Lithuanian basketball, food, landmarks and so on. Their love for basketball is much less love for the sport, than pathologic patriotism that shows the fears of being a small nation. Basketball is their way of positioning themselves on the world map which sucks a lot, since sport always suffers and it becomes a subject of political debate, national pride and so on. It is very similar in Slovenia, it's just the people react a bit differently. Slovenian mentality is introverted and always results in criticising yourself for not being able to reach the very top, being the best of the best, while Lithuania is very boastful and in your face about their achievements, even if they are more than 20 years old. The 92' game with Russia was for me a curse for Lithuanian basketball, because at that time basketball became a pillar of Lithuanian extreme patriotism. It is nearly impossible for someone from outside to truly be sympathetic with their sport if you know how an average fan perceives basketball.
Maybe we lost some matches precisely because of this introverted mentality (which is answer to Shawshanks question), but i prefer to have it this way, than the opposite, being a douchebag and try to show how superior my nation is to literally every foreigner.
From the less philosophical standpoint and more on-topic:
it's a pity we lost today, but it was kind of expected for this team. Their major downfall was the inability to adapt to new conditions. Today, we saw a lot of those. Traveling to another country and early hour of match were decisive for the level of energy with which we started the game. Latvian tall players, who are physically much better than our very old and tired talls, were of course able to adapt much quicker to new conditions and that was decisive. It broke our tactical plan and made us play in Latvian rhythm. Also, the guys didn't get the fanatical support they were getting in Zagreb. Most importantly, Latvians were prepared for this match, as they would have been studying us for one month. They knew the tendencies of every our player. It was a very, very good preparation from the Latvian assistant coaches and they deserve to be in quarters.
Many don't know that Zoran Dragić and Zdovc had a small fight after the Netherlands game and it changed team chemistry a lot. This team was the best when Zdovc was pushing them to the limit throughout the match by yelling at them. He stopped doing that after that fight. Zoran got his leadership role that he wanted and this might have influenced our today's inability to rise the level of energy during the match.
It's not a secret, this is a huge blow for Slovenian basketball and it might take quite some time to get back to the TOP8 position. It will also change the dynamic of national's team organization, since we'll have to play qualifying matches, which might be good for our less known and experienced players. An era has now truly finished and although we didn't win a medal, I think we weren't really under-achieving, our results were always very real. It left us some bitter memories, but also some very good ones, especially from the travels to championships, my favourite one still being Serbia 2005.
we also won many bronze matches.Half of those semifinals was againts USa,so yeah we are loosers when we are playing them i admit that 