Though Brazil's defeat in its last contest came in stunning fashion, it likely didn't do much to harm the team's chances of reaching the next level of the tournament.
The Brazilians can lock up a spot in the quarterfinal round Saturday with a victory over winless China, which has dropped each of its contests by double digits.
Brazil (2-1) fought from 11 points down and took a two-point lead with 6.1 seconds remaining on Marcelo Huertas' layup against Russia on Thursday. However, Vitaliy Fridzon hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left before Leandro Barbosa's running 3 as time expired missed, handing Brazil a 75-74 defeat in one of the more exciting games of the preliminary round.
Barbosa finished with 16 points, but he's gone 3 for 16 from 3-point range in the Olympics. He hit 42.4 percent of his 3s over his last 22 games of the NBA season.
''That's tough, man,'' forward Anderson Varejao said after scoring four points. ''We had one foul (to give), but we knew what they were going to do. We played them well, he just made a tough shot. We felt like we had control of the game in the final minutes. It's tough. Really tough.''
Nene added eight points and 10 rebounds for Brazil.
Though Brazil fell one game behind Group B co-leaders Russia and Spain, a victory over the Chinese would qualify it for the quarterfinal round.
China (0-3) has struggled throughout the preliminary round, losing its games by an average of 18.3 points. It fell 81-61 to Australia on Thursday despite leading after the first quarter.
Yi Jianlian scored 30 points against Spain on Sunday and had 16 versus Russia on Tuesday, but he shot 2 for 7 from the field and 9 of 14 from the free-throw line for 13 points Thursday.
Jianlian had 12 rebounds, and Wang Shipeng went 7 of 10 from 3-point range for 21 points - exceeding the 15 total points he scored in China's first two defeats.
ZhiZhi Wang, who played for three NBA teams from 2000-05, went 0 for 8 and scored one point.
