SENDAI, Japan -- Boris Diaw of the Phoenix Suns made four free throws in the final six seconds to send France past Serbia and Montenegro 65-61 Sunday night, the second loss for the defending champions at the world championships.

Diaw sealed the outcome with four seconds left after Igor Rakocevic missed a free throw that would have pulled the 2002 champions within a point.

Diaw led France with 20 points and was 8-for-10 from the foul line. At last year's European championships, Diaw went 0-for-11 from the line against Slovenia.

"I'm usually pretty good from the free throw line," Diaw said. "Some nights you make the shots and some nights you don't, but you've still got to get the job done."

Rakocevic, who played one season for the Minnesota Timberwolves, led Serbia and Montenegro with 22 points.

Playing again without injured guard Tony Parker, France took a 48-44 lead after the third quarter of a physical, defensive game. Parker broke his right index finger in a tuneup game against Brazil in China last week and pulled out of the tournament on Friday.

France (1-1) lost to Argentina on Saturday and has now played two of the toughest teams in Group A. Serbia and Montenegro (0-2) lost its opener to Nigeria and still must face Argentina.

Serbia and Montenegro won the 2002 world title at Indianapolis while competing as Yugoslavia. However, it made this tournament only as a wild card. Now it is an aging team and some of its NBA players -- Nenad Krstic of New Jersey and Aleksandar Pavlovic of Cleveland -- are not playing.

"We played with enough heart to win," Serbia and Montenegro coach Dragan Sakota said. "At the end of the game if you miss the free throws and the other team makes them this is what happens. Our goal still is to make it to the next round and we feel we can do that."

Diaw gave France a 48-44 lead after three quarters with a reverse layup. The score was 30-30 at halftime.

"We were ready for them," Diaw said. "We knew they were a good team and what carried us tonight was our teamwork and physical play."