The last time Lauri Markkanen was on the floor, he We’re just a few steps away from delivering a really great buzzer beaterClearly a lesson learned, he didn’t miss an opportunity Thursday night against the Houston Rockets.
Markkanen scored 18 points in the first quarter to help the Utah Jazz take an early lead, but neither he nor the team looked back. He scored a career-high 49 points and had eight rebounds in 15 of 27 field goals in a five-game losing streak in a 131-114 win over the Rockets.
This was a truly complete offensive show from Markkanen who did everything a little bit against a Rockets defense that didn’t always offer that much resistance. He knocked down his six 3-pointers, threw five dunks, shot tough looks in the midrange, and freed his throws from his line where he scored 13-of-13 perfects. bottom.
Jazz head coach Will Hardy said, “Lauri has done a very good job of continuing to work on the different ways he can impact the game offensively.” but I think the physics he played – driving the ball, playing as a screener – gave him opportunities to score in many different ways. How to get to the throw line a lot. When you see a big scoring night in the NBA, there are often a lot of free throws associated with it.
Markkanen is only the sixth player in Jazz franchise history to do so, and the first since Donovan Mitchell in 2020. He also became his 34th another player to score 40 or more points this season, and 18th another.do it from christmas It was an incredible league-wide scoring bingeIncidentally, ten years ago only 14 players scored 40 points in the entire 2012-13 season.
When the Jazz traded Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers last summer, Markkanen was something of an afterthought in the deal. A few months later, he became the new face of the Utah franchise. After a night of his career, he has put up 24.5 points per game with his 53.0/42.2/87.7 shooting and he has 8.4 rebounds in his split. He is 18th in the league in scoring and boasts a 50/40/90 with a legitimate chance to join his club and appear in his first All-Star Game when Salt Lake City hosts next month. even do.
