AMERICANS FINALLY SHOW SOME METTLE MEN WIN BRONZE IN REMATCH WITH LITHUANIA U.S. 104, LITHUANIA 96.

Byline: Mirjam Swanson Staff Writer

ATHENS, Greece - Olympians are fond of talking about ``the journey.''

As in, it's not so much the medal that's important, but the figurative road athletes take chasing it.

In Athens, the U.S men's basketball players went on a wild and well-critiqued ride on their way to clinching the bronze medal with a 104-96 victory over Lithuania on Saturday before 14,500 at Olympic Indoor Hall.

``We didn't do what we wanted to do,'' Allen Iverson said. ``But we accomplished something.''

The U.S. team, comprised of NBA players for the fourth Games since the 1992 Dream Team crushed its Olympic competition by 44 points a game, became only the second American men's basketball team to settle for bronze. They join the 1988 team that was comprised solely of college players.

It lost three games at this Olympics after starting the Games 109-2 over 68 years.

But none of the U.S. players wanted to call the Athens Games a disaster.

``It's sad so many people want to taint this experience,'' said Richard Jefferson. ``Especially when it took them asking 30 guys for them to find 12 who would come and commit a month-and-a-half of their summer.''

Against Lithuania, the Americans played as if they were committed to going home with a medal - even if it wasn't gold - because, as Iverson said, ``Going home with nothing would've been worse.''

Nothing was guaranteed against the sharp-shooting Lithuanians, who got as close as a point with 6:47 left. But soon after Shawn Marion, who had a team-high 22 points, increased the U.S. lead to 87-82 with a 3-pointers and the Americans never looked back.

After Friday's loss to Argentina, U.S. coaches were unsure how motivated their team would be to play Lithuania, which defeated the Americans 94-90 last week.

But judging just by the boisterous cheering from the players on the U.S. bench, the Americans were up to the challenge Saturday.

``I don't care if I'm playing a pickup game with a bunch of guys that never played the game before,'' said Iverson, who had 15 points. ``I still want to win, I'm still gonna play hard.''

Defensively, the Americans were active enough to get 12 steals and four blocked shots.

Offensively, they were looking for one another so well they had 19 assists and were focused enough to make 46 percent (36 for 79) of their shots. The Americans made eight 3-pointers, all in the second half.

All of that was imperative because Tim Duncan fouled out for the third time of the tournament and Lithuania made 21 of 27 3-pointers, including seven in the fourth quarter.

``We had to dig deep inside of us and we did,'' Marion said. ``At least we go home with something, at least we don't go home empty-handed.''

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The U.S. men's basketball team was happy to leave Athens with something to celebrate.

Dusan Vranic/Associated Press