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Lauri Markkanen The opening game of the NBA season ended with a loss against the Sacramento Kings. The Utah Jazz lost 114-130 to a team expected to make the playoffs.
Markkanen scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. He made 6 of 15 field goal attempts and 2 of 6 three-pointers. Markkanen sank five of his six free throws.
Markkanen was Utah’s second best scorer. Jordan Clarkson bagged 24 points. The Filipino also took one game situation throw in the match more than Markkanen.
Markkanen started the match by throwing only one of his five shots into the game. However, his throws were mostly forced and really difficult due to Utah’s sticky offense.
Markkanen entered his next two shifts really in a hurry. These moments also made the Utah audience cringe.
In the second period, the 213-centimeter versatile Finn showed his strengths, sailing elegantly through the field to reach the goal. Right after, he also got to the basket of the dunked ball.
After the halftime break, Markkanen was also heavily featured when Utah tried to put a harder gear in the eye. Markkanen also made a few hard baskets, but Sacramento was able to respond to this blow.
Sacramento defended Markkas as expected hard throughout the match. Especially in the second half, several video review situations were seen, where the actions of Markkanen or the Sacramento players who defended him were examined.
In the middle of the fourth period, we saw a really long video review, the end result of which was Markkas defending Harrison Barnes first got a foul for violating the Finn in the pursuit of the ball situation. Markkanen also received a technical foul, because the jury also interpreted this as having pushed Barnes by the hand too hard after the actual game situation.
Familiar problems in Utah’s playing – Markkanen: “Unacceptable”
The weaknesses of the Utah Jazz, which were already mentioned before the season, caught the eye right away in the first game of the season. In advance, there has been a lot of talk about the level of the team’s defenders and the players’ lack of passing skills.
The offensive game was very sticky right from the start. Utah’s backs couldn’t get the ball moving. There were a total of six turnovers in the opening period.
In addition, there were difficulties on the defensive end. Utah tried to freeze Sacramento by deploying a slot defense instead of a man defense. In that, Markkanen defended his form at the top and tried to disturb the opponent’s smaller back men.
It worked for a while, until Sacramento started moving the ball more and found their free players.
Harrison Barnes scored 27 points in the opening half. The reading was wild in the sense that Barnes has previously scored 36 points in one game at his best in his career.
Sacramento already led by 14 points at halftime. At the start of the second half, Utah deployed a man defense. At the same time, its defensive play improved for a while. Utah was already nine points away from Sacramento, but in the end was not able to properly challenge the team predicted for the playoffs.
Lauri Markkanen reminded Urheilu after the match that Utah did not play the best game.
– There are quite a lot of things that can be done better. That’s how it is quite often in the first game. We’re pretty excited. The implementation is a little worse. Is not acceptable. We have to be better, Markkanen said.
The Finn still didn’t put his head down, but emphasized that Utah’s team has enough potential.
– We can be better at both ends of the field.. We have a good gang. I have a lot of faith in these guys. We have potential. We just have to press on with the work, Markkanen said.
According to Markkanen, playing improves when the team develops its communication.
– In defense, we fell asleep a bit, when maybe we didn’t know our defense style. Aggressiveness can be added to it. The attack was the same. It felt like we were in the wrong places at times. The attack sometimes went to play 1vs1. Let’s get the ball rolling, Markkanen said.
Markkanen, who was historically the first Nordic to be selected to the NBA All-Star Game last season, scored 25.6 points per game and grabbed 8.6 rebounds per game. Markkanen is aware that he has room to improve in his own game as well.
– It’s nice to get the machines running and start improving this, Markkanen said.
Utah is predicted to miss the playoffs this season as well, but to improve its ranking from last season. Last season, Utah was 12th in the Western Conference, and did not reach the top ten for the playoffs. In February, Utah made a clearance sale, where they sought experienced players by trading better positions for the booking event.
Utah next plays Finnish time on Saturday morning against the Los Angeles Clippers. The beginning of the season is rough for Utah, because after the Clipper home game, Utah will face two champion candidates, Phoenix and Denver, on the away field.
Denver is the reigning champion from last season.
– There are no easy games in this league. We must be able to do our best every day. We weren’t at our best today. Still, we were able to keep the game tight at times, Markkanen concluded.