In a clash of unbeatens, Greece fell behind by as many as 12 points in the second quarter but held their nerve and fought back to win 101-95.

High-scoring guard Vasilis Spanoulis had 22 points and man mountain center Sofoklis Schortsanitis came off the bench to add 14 for Greece.

"Obviously, the Greek team and their coaching staff did an amazing job today," Krzyzewski said..

"It's not surprising. I¡¯ve known (Greece coach Panagiotis) Yannakis most of my basketball life. His team plays like he played.

"I thought our kids played with great heart also. We lost to a team that played a great game, and I take responsibility for the loss."

Krzyzewski, a hugely successful coach at Duke University, decided not to play back-up center Dwight Howard for most of the second half despite the Orlando Magic star¡¯s excellent first half.

Howard had been a terror on the boards, pulling down six rebounds and scoring eight points.

"I want to play, I want to get out there and help my team win," said Howard, who also had kind words for the Greek team.

"They went out there and played hard. If they felt like they were the underdogs, the played hard the whole game and had the fans behind them and won the game."

Schortsanitis had been a handful for the American players.

"He was getting the ball off pick-and-rolls," Howard said. "They were running the same play the whole second half and he was getting in there every time."

When asked why the Americans didn¡¯t apply more full-court pressure, Howard said: "I don¡¯t know what was going on. I think we could have pressured them a little bit more.

"But there is nothing we can do about it now. We can talk about it, but they still won and they¡¯re still in the Championship."

Carmelo Anthony, who had a game-high 27 points in defeat, also had praise for Greece.

"Greece were playing so hard, coming back from behind," he said.

"I want to take my hat off to them for playing so hard ¡­ To lose any game is a shock to us.

"We came in with a mentality that we wanted to win this game and try to win the gold medal. At the end of the day we need to get ourselves together. It's not the end of the world for us. We win together and lose together."