Lauri Markkanen scored eight dunks, his new single-game record, but his team, the Utah Jazz, still lost 118-126 as a guest of the Chicago Bulls in the NBA basketball league early Sunday Finnish time.
In the previous match, Markkanen had set his new points record, 49. Now he collected 28 points, clearly the most of his team, but the Bulls’ power duo DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine scored 35 and 36 points.
Evenly, the struggle was resolved in the last quarter, largely because the Bulls’ back LaVine succeeded in three three-point throws in just over a minute. The Jazz’s chase had already turned desperate when Markkanen failed in two of his three-point attempts in the last minute or so.
Bulls did everything he could to keep the fiery Finn off the ball. He was even guarded by two men, and it worked.
Markkanen had a hard time finding space for his shots – he made two threes in seven attempts – but he solved it by driving the ball with power and skill through the defensive wall under the basket, very effectively.
A special highlight was donking the Bulls credit center Nikola Vučević over. The 213-centimeter Montenegrin was completely irresistible at the feet of the Finn of the same height, although according to all logic he should have been able to stop him or even shake him.
Vučević is the most random player whose arrival from Orlando in the spring of 2021 practically knocked Markkanen out of the starting lineup in Chicago.
Now Markkanen returned for the first time in a Utah Jazz jersey to the first home of his NBA career in Chicago, which gave him up after four seasons. Markkanen played well last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and this season he has become a real star player for the Jazz.
Read more: A shock move to a Mormon town threatened to turn Lauri Markkanen’s career downhill, but something completely different happened
“It’s a dismaying failure of the organization to let go of such a talented guy,” local radio commentator for Utah Jazz games David Locke updated Bulls executive blindness on his Locked on Jazz podcast.
Familiar faces ignite Markkanen, which he has admitted. Last January, in a Cavaliers shirt, he scored 28 points against the Bulls, last November, when the Bulls visited Utah, he scored 32 points.
Markkanen was in the NBA before the evening’s round of matches spot exchange 18th place with an average of 24.5 points per game. That’s roughly 11 points more than his last season in Chicago.
In the last seven games, Markkanen’s scoring average has been no less than 33.
He is considered a round-by-round pick for the NBA All-Star Game, which will be played on February 19 at the Utah Jazz’s home arena in Salt Lake City.
Although Markkanen is not reaching the starting line-up voted by the fans, the media and the NBA players, the NBA coaches choose the All Stars replacement players and based on the excerpts of the last few weeks, it is difficult to ignore Markkas.
Read more: A rude announcement for Lauri Markkanen – even the NBA legend was upset on a live TV broadcast
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