Utah jazz forward Laurimalkanen is one of the outstanding performers at Eurobasket this summer.
With Finland having a weaker roster than many other teams, Markanen had to take a lot of responsibility.
Well, he surpasses expectations by leading his country to victory over Sweden, England and Montenegro.
However, the 7-foot forward ran into trouble in his latest game against Finland’s Lithuania.
Markanen had scored over 25 points in each of the three Eurobasket games before playing against Lithuania.
Lithuania held Markanen to 19 points with 35% efficiency from the field, winning the game 81-78.
NBA podcaster Adam Marless told Tim Legler that he reminded the Oklahoma City Thunder to Nicola Jokic in the NBA playoffs.
“What made this game interesting for me was Lauri Markanen scored 19 points, nine of which were in the fourth quarter,” Marless said.
“Lithuania switched everything. It made a big blowjob, (Jonas) Varanschna barely playable. He didn’t play a lot of time because he wanted a switchable lineup so (Malkanen) couldn’t run pick-and-roll and wiggles for free.
“And they put him a bit of a nasty Lithuanian Alex Caruso and said, “You know you beat him and get him physical.”
“He just got his body. They brought a man behind him, and they pinched him, what the Oklahoma City Thunder did to Nicola Jokic, and just said.
“And by the way, every time you get it to him, we’re going to treat this like wrestling and we dare to call it a foul.” It’s incredibly physical and as great as Lauri Markkanen is in this tournament, so I thought he had a good read and did a lot of right things, but he couldn’t finish the shot.
“He couldn’t swing freely and struggled with that. He scored 10 points in the fourth quarter.”
The Utah Jazz could possibly expect NBA teams to adopt the same tactics as Lithuania against Markanen in the regular season.
Despite struggling with Finland’s defeat to Lithuania, Markokanen is still highly ranked for points scored in the Eurobasket 2025.
Only Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Donsic (33.0) has averaged more points per game than Markanen (29.0) so far.
| Rank | player | team | game | ppg | FG% | 3p% |
| 1. | Luka Donsic | Slovenia | 4 | 33.0 | 40.5 | 27.5 |
| 2. | Lauri Marcanen | Finland | 4 | 29.0 | 48.6 | 40.7 |
| 3. | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Greece | 2 | 29.0 | 74.2 | 100 |
| 4. | Jordan Lloyd | Poland | 4 | 25.8 | 57.7 | 61.9 |
| 5. | Dennis Schroder | Germany | 4 | 22.3 | 53.4 | 44.4 |
The Finnish player has scored more than perennial MVP candidates Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic.
This could continue the Finland knockout round and make a deeper progression into the competition.