There may have been a billion people watching China bow to the US last night, but the most competitive game on the opening day of the men's Olympic basketball tournament was Lithuania's upset of gold medal holder Argentina.

Linas Kleiza of Lithuania (R) shoots the game-winning basket over Carlos Delfino of Argentina during their Group A basketball game at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 10, 2008. [Agencies]

On a day of blowouts, the game between the world's No 2- and No 5-ranked teams was a wire-to-wire nail biter. Argentina looked rusty coming out of the gate for its gold-medal defense, as superstar Manu Ginobili struggled to find his form early. Lithuania, meanwhile, came out looking smooth and well oiled, confident in its execution and a far cry from the side the US dismantled two weeks ago in a warm-up game in Macau.

But despite awful shooting from the floor and a pesky Lithuanian defense, Argentina managed to stick around. And even though it fell behind by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter, Argentina was able to battle back and even reclaimed a late lead.

Helping Argentina's cause was an increasingly partisan crowd, which started off somewhat neutral save for a block of quite vocal Lithuanian supporters decked out in face paint and sporting stripes of yellow, green and red. But in the closing minutes, the crowd, star-struck by a red-hot Ginobili (who finished with a game-high 19) and clearly favoring Yao Ming's Rockets teammate Luis Scola, showed its true colors and went full tilt toward Argentina.

The sudden support was not enough, however, and Linas Kleiza's 3-pointer in the closing seconds effectively shut the door for an upstart Lithuania.

The Lithuania-Argentina encounter was the only game that was even close yesterday. The wheat was mostly separated from the chaff, as every favored team won handily. But one rather surprising blowout came in a rematch of the 2006 World Championship final between Spain and Greece.

On paper, it looked like the battle between the world No 3 (Spain) and No 6 would be a dogfight. Instead the reigning world champion turned what began as a close match into a shellacking, which was exactly what happened against the same Greek team in 2006. The Spaniards were heavy favorites coming into the Olympics; yesterday's performance only made them look more dangerous.