Portugal's European Championship debut was at EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. The national team got off to an rough start in their first two preliminary round matches, losing by huge margins to Greece and Bulgaria. Although, they did get an official win in Romania's forfeit to finish 1–2 and third place in the group. In the first classification round, Portugal managed a win against Switzerland in a major upset, 51–49, but nevertheless finished in fourth and last place of the classification round group with a 1–2 record. They then lost to Denmark in the second round classification 13th–16th place game, but defeated Scotland in the 15th/16th place game to place 15th of the 18 teams.
Portugal qualified for their second EuroBasket by finishing first in their qualification group, where they beat the likes of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Israel, who eventually booked the last place in the final tournament through an additional qualifying tournament. In the preliminary round, Portugal lost its first two matches against Spain and Croatia by 56–82 and 68–90, respectively. Before the third and last match of its group, Portugal had to defeat Latvia by, at least, sixteen points; alternatively, a victory would suffice provided Croatia defeated the World champions, Spain, in their last match. Portugal won by only ten points, but since Croatia grabbed a surprising one-point victory, with a three-pointer in the last three seconds, Portugal qualified for the first time ever to the second round. Portugal began this round playing against Russia, that had won all their games in its preliminary group. But, the Portuguese came up short losing 78-65. Israel was their next opponent and, like in the qualification, Portugal once again was victorious beating them, putting up their best performance in the tournament. This second victory revived Portugal's chances to reach the quarterfinals; a simple victory in the last match against the reigning EuroBasket 2005 champions and 2006 FIBA World Cup runners-up Greece would be enough, if Croatia defeated Russia. However, Greece displayed a consistent and stronger game, defeating the Portuguese 85-67 and ending their qualification hopes. Nevertheless, it was the best performance ever by the national team at this level, ensuring a top 10 finish at the European Championship.
EuroBasket 2011
After Portugal's surprising performance at their last EuroBasket in 2007 there was optimism within the national team heading into it this time around. After making it through the repechage tournament to qualify, Portugal was dealt with an tough task after being placed in Group A. Having to go up against Euro powerhouses in Spain and host nation Lithuania was going to be challenging. But Turkey, Poland, and Great Britain proved to be overwhelming as well. The national team eventually finished last in the Group, losing all 5 of its matches in the preliminary stage and failed to advance.
