The United States beat Slovenia 99-77 for its second lopsided victory in two games and Lithuania also went 2-0, while Angola and China bounced back from opening-day losses to win their first games at the basketball World Championship Sunday. Lithuania, which got a wild card to play in the tournament, rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half to beat Canada 70-68 for its second victory. Jermaine Anderson missed a last-second 3-pointer for Canada (0-2). Angola, which lost by 50 points to Serbia a day earlier, tied the game at the end of the third quarter and beat Jordan (0-2) 79-65 Sunday. China defeated Ivory Coast 83-73. A weakened German team, missing their talismanic NBA forward Dirk Nowitzki, produced the shock of the world championship with an 82-81 win over Serbia. Germany's chances of advancing into the last 16 looked slim after Nowitzki had pulled out of the 24-team event, but his understudy Jan-Hendrik Jagla produced a truly scintillating performance to give the Germans their first win. Holder Spain brushed aside New Zealand 101-84 while 2006 finalists Greece had to dig deep to overcome the unfancied opposition of Puerto Rico 83-80. Host Turkey, roared on by their fans, dismissed Russia 65-56 and Argentina, the 2004 Olympic champions, rallied from a six-point halftime deficit in a 74-72 defeat of Australia. In other matches, Croatia routed Iran 75-54, Brazil beat Tunisia 80-65unced lebanon 89-56. In Istanbul, Kevin Durant scored 22 points and reserve Kevin Love added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the United States (2-0). The US team, seeking its first world title in 16 years, got off to a quick start and Durant came through with a basket every time Americans slowed down. The US.team is without any of its tops stars that led the team to the Olympic gold medal two years ago. Rudy Gay finished with 16 points for the Americans, while Russell Westbrook and Andre Iguodala each had 11. Durant shot 8 of 13 before sitting out the fourth quarter of the Group B game. Bostjan Nachbar scored 13 points for Slovenia (1-1). Linas Kleizas had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Lithuania, which used a 24-3 run to wipe out the 56-39 deficit with 5:19 to play in the third quarter. Tomas Delininkaitis' 3-pointer from the corner early in the fourth quarter gave Lithuania its first lead, 58-57. Anderson had 15 points and Joel Anthony of the Miami Heat added 12 for Canada in the Group D game in Izmir. Yi Jianlian scored 26 points to lead China and Wang Shipeng added 25 as they used their size inside against the smaller African team. Mouloukou Diabate had 20 points for Ivory Coast (0-2), which lost 86-47 to host Turkey in the tournament opener. China, playing without injured NBA All-Star Yao Ming, bounced back from an 89-81 opening loss to Greece in Group C in Ankara. “We had an emotional lost yesterday but we made a progress at today,” China coach Bob Donewald said. Yi said: “Today, we really fought in the match ... we did a really good job.” In Group A in Kayseri, Miguel Lutonda led Angola with 16 points, including some key baskets in the fourth. Angola tied the game at the end of the third quarter and was up by 10 with five minutes remaining. Jordan never came closer than five after that. Jordan (0-2) was coming off a close loss to Australia and kept things tight again until fading in the fourth quarter against the African champion. Carlos Morais added 14 points for Angola, Joaquim Gomes had 13 and six rebounds and Carlos Almeida also had six rebounds to go with 11 points. Rasheim Wright, a naturalized American, had 18 points for Jordan and Zaid Abbas added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Jordan coach Mario Palma blasted the officials, saying bad calls changed the course of the game. “I am very upset,” Palma said. “How can I get a technical when I am talking to my players? Where is that rule?” The referee was William Gene Kennedy of the United States. Wright said there were “a lot of bad calls,” but did not blame for the defeat.
