Nenad Krstic of Serbia slams the ball into the rim during their game against Argentina on Thursday inthe 2010 FIBA-World Basketball Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo courtesy of FIBA.com)

As the top eight squads prepare to figure in all-important matches in the coming days, the 2010 FIBA-World Basketball Championships is beginning to unravel lots of surprises and unexpected twists.

Serbia leaned on the heroics of 6-foot-8 power forward Dusko Savanovic, who canned 19 points in 22 minutes of play, to hand Argentina its first loss of the tournament, 84-82, in Thursday’s nail-biting action in Istanbul, Turkey.

With the score knotted at 77-apiece, Savanovic unloaded a three-pointer off an assist from teammate Ivan Paunic to push the Serbians ahead by three, with just 18 seconds remaining in the game.

The game then became a free-throw duel as both teams opted to give up one foul after another to preserve time and get a crack at the basket.

Aleksandar Rasic, a starter for the Serbian squad, then padded his team’s lead to four, 82-78, courtesy of two free-throws off a foul from Paolo Quinteros.

But the Argentines, who were badly outrebounded all throughout the game (43-32),  managed to inch closer and close the gap to within a point, 81-82, with Quinteros sinking three bonus tries from the line after getting fouled by Serbia’s Milos Teodosic.

Rasic returned the favor on Serbia’s next possession by converting on his two free-throws for his team’s final score.

“We have been watching Argentina for 10 years trying to learn. Today, I think, we taught them something," said Serbia’s head coach Dusko Ivanovic in a post-game interview.

Power forward and team captain Luis Scola, who plays for the Houston Rockets in the NBA, led the Argentines with 32 points in 36 minutes of action, anchored on a very efficient 12-of-19 field goal shooting (63.2 percent). Averaging 29 points per game during his team’s five outings in the tournament so far, he now leads the Argentine national team as its all-time scoring leader in the FIBA-World Championships. He had previous stints with the team back in 2002 and 2006.

“He came into the game with 325 points, behind Ernesto " Finito" Gehrmann who scored 331 points in the 1967 and 1974 editions,” the official FIBA news story reports. “His two point basket with 9:31 in the second quarter of their game against Serbia broke the record.”

Meanwhile, the United States (US) squad played lackluster basketball for most parts of the game before unleashing a furious offensive charge in the final quarter to rout Tunisia, 92-57.

Los Angeles Clippers sophomore guard Eric Gordon made use of his playing time to lead the Americans to the win, pouring 21 points in 25 minutes of play.

"We thought in our pool every team played hard. Tunisia's play was symbolic of that type of play, as they fought on every possession,” said US team head coach Mike Krzyzewski in the post-game interview.  “Although we need to work on our stuff a little better, I thought we played hard in the second half.”

Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook chipped in 14 points apiece, while Golden State Warriors rookie Stephen Curry added 13 for USA.

Thursday's game scores:
Group A:
Australia 76, Angola 55
Serbia 84, Argentina 82
Germany 91, Jordan 73

Group B:
USA 92, Tunisia 57
Slovenia 65, Iran 60
Brazil 92, Croatia 74

Group C:
Ivory Coast 88, Puerto Rico 79
Russia 73, Greece 69
Turkey 87, China 40

Group D:
Spain 89, Canada 67
Lithuania 84, Lebanon 66
New Zealand 82, France 70