Croatia spoils Brazil basketball party with 80-76 win

Rio de Janeiro : Bojan Bogdanovic of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets poured in 33 points as Croatia spoiled the party for hosts Brazil with an 80-76 win in Olympic basketball on Thursday.

Brazil was hoping to build on their thrilling upset of world number two Spain two days earlier that threw the tournament's Group B wide open.

But Bogdanovic proved too much for the Brazilian defence, continually marauding into the paint and making Brazil pay when they fouled him, going 10-of-11 at the line.

"For me it's not something that surprises me," Croatian power forward Dario Saric, who will soon join the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, said after the win.

"This Croatian team have power, talent and energy to play, and we are young. I think we can play with everybody except America."

The USA's team of NBA stars is heavily favoured to win the tournament for the third straight Olympics and opened by routing China and Venezuela by a combined 101 points.

But Australia gave them a run for their money on Wednesday, briefly holding a fourth-quarter lead and making the Americans work for a 98-88 win that is likely to hearten other USA opponents.

Brazil came in to the game against Croatia on a high after their emotional last-second victory over Group B favourites Spain on Tuesday.

Croatia led by as much as 14 deep into the third period but Brazil made it 75-72 with back-to-back three-pointers by Alex Garcia and Guilherme Giovannoni with just over a minute left that had the raucous home crowd smelling another win.

But Brazil never got closer as the two sides traded fouls down the stretch.

Leandro Barbosa led Brazilian scorers with 16.

The result leaves Croatia at 2-1, and Brazil at 1-2.

Later on Thursday, Spain will look to get back on track against winless Nigeria, and Argentina faces Lithuania with both teams seeking to go 3-0.