LULEA, Sweden -- Tariq Abdul-Wahad of the Dallas Mavericks scored 16 points to lead France to an 85-52 victory over Italy on Saturday at the European Basketball Championships.

	Abdul-Wahad

With new Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird watching from the VIP section at Coop Arena, the 2000 Olympic silver medalists showed why they're one of the favorites win the Euro title, building from a three-point lead in the first quarter to a 39-27 advantage by halftime.

Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs finished with 10 points and spent most of the fourth quarter resting on the bench.

	Parker

Nikola Radulovic led Italy with 18 points.

In the other Group A game, Slovenia, which beat Italy in its opener, defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 73-62. Pacers center Primoz Brezec scored 14 points, and Marko Tusek added 16 points for the winners.

In Group C, Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies scored 31 of his 35 points in the first half as Spain remained unbeaten with an 89-77 win over Russia at Sodertalje.

	Gasol

Gasol teamed with guard Juan Carlos Navarro to score 43 of the team's 51 points.

Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko was limited to eight points in the first three quarters, but finished with 26 points.

In a Group B game at Norrkoping, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks scored 32 points to lead Germany to a 94-86 victory over Latvia.

	Nowitzki

Latvia cut a 16-point deficit to four, 85-81, with less than three minutes remaining before guard Mithat Demirel scored Germany's last nine points.

Nowitzki shot 8-for-19 from the field and 14-for-17 from the line and finished with nine rebounds.

Ainars Bagatskis scored 18 points for Latvia, which needs a victory over Israel on Sunday for a chance to advance to the elimination round.

In another Group B game, Lithuania beat Israel 94-62 for its second straight win.

Saulius Stombergas scored 16 points and Donatas Slanina added 14 for Lithuania, winner of two Euro titles in 1937 and '39.

Yaniv Green led Israel with 12 points.

In a Group D game at Boras, Gordan Giricek of the Orlando Magic scored a game-high 21 points, leading Croatia to a 93-71 win over Ukraine and Efthymios Rentzias had 15 points to lead Greece to a 75-70 win over Turkey.

Greece, which won its only European title in 1987, improved to 2-0. Mehmet Okur of the Detroit Pistons had 23 points for Turkey (1-1).

The top team from each of the first-round groups advances to the quarterfinals, while the second- and third-place teams play an elimination game to determine which team advances to the quarters.

All games from the quarterfinal stage will be played in the 14,000-seat Globe Arena in Stockholm.

The top three finishers qualify for next year's Olympics in Athens. Serbia and Montenergo (defending world champions) and Greece (host nation) have earned automatic berths.