Kazakhstan handed Japan its first defeat of the FIBA Asia Championship on Tuesday night in Tokushima, topping the tournament hosts 93-85 in a Group 2 game in the quarterfinal round.
Anton Ponomarev, Rustam Yargaliyew and Yevgeniy Issakov scored 24, 23 and 20 points, respectively.
After the game, Japan coach Kimikazu Suzuki admitted his team had no answer for Kazakh trio.
"They caught us completely unaware," Suzuki said. "Whatever they did, it was done very well. And whatever we did, (it) didn't work out at all."
Japan was to face South Korea in another quarterfinal round game on Wednesday at 8:15 p.m.
Clearly, Suzuki said, his team needed to focus on playing better against the South Koreans.
"I think we'll have to leave this game behind and start looking ahead," he said.
Japan trailed Kazakhstan 26-15 after one quarter and saw its deficit reach 62-51 entering the final period.
Japan's Takuya Kawamura scored a team-high 21 points. He hit 7 of 12 shots from 3-point range and added two steals in 21 productive minutes. Veteran shooting guard Takehiko Orimo scored 16, Kosuke Takeuchi added 11 and J.R. Sakuragi had 10. Japan was held to just 21 rebounds in the contest 21, a tournament-low for the squad.