National Basketball Association

Nowitzki, Germany bounced from Euros

Published Sep. 12, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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After an off night by Dirk Nowitzki, Germany is out of the European Championship. And that means the NBA finals MVP will not be at next year's Olympics.

Nowitzki's poor shooting doomed his country to an 84-75 loss against Lithuania on Sunday. Germany missed out on a spot in the quarterfinals of the continental tournament and a chance to qualify for the London Games.

Germany needed to win by 11 points to advance, but never came close. Nowitzki was limited to 16 points on 4-for-17 shooting, and Lithuania made it to the knockout round.

''It's my fault. I was not in condition to play a good tournament,'' said Nowitzki, who led the Dallas Mavericks to their first NBA title last season.

Nowitzki was held scoreless until making a pair of free throws midway into the second quarter, and finished the first half with just seven points. Chris Kaman had 25 points and 11 rebounds for Germany and Robin Benzing shot perfectly from the field and the line to finish with 18 points. But it wasn't enough.

Rimantas Kaukenas had 19 for Lithuania, Jonas Valanciunas scored nine of his 15 in the fourth quarter, and Sarunas Jasikevicius added 17 for the home side, which scored the last nine points of the game.

''We did an excellent job on Dirk Nowitzki, we wore him down,'' Lithuania coach Kestutis Kemzura said. ''Rebounds were important for us and coming up with steals.''