Point scorer Lauri Markkanen was not told at the end of the game that the point record for A national matches was at hand – “I left a lot of points on the table”

Lauri Markkanen Thursday night’s match against Ukraine was memorable. The Finnish NBA star wore the Susijengin jersey for the first time in his hometown.

The last time the Finnish men’s national team played in Jyväskylä was in November 1988, when the home team lost to the Soviet Union by two points. In the national match in question, Lauri’s father appeared in the Suomi shirt, Pekka Markkanen.

– As a little boy, I would not have imagined that I would play in the national team, let alone in Jyväskylä. The hall was now completely full and the tight game went into overtime. It went just like dreams. Now we have to make sure that it doesn’t take another 34 years to come here again, grinned Lauri Markkanen.

By far the best player in Finland was hometown star Markkanen, who scored 42 points against Ukraine, who at the same time by Timo Lampen, Kari-Pekka Klinga and Hanno Möttölän The point record for A national matches.

– Glad to hear that you are among them. I only heard about it after the game. I was just trying to win the match.

Markkanen wasn’t quite satisfied with his own game despite the big score.

– I left a lot of points on the table when I missed free throws and I had a pretty bad long throw day. In addition, there were a couple of slips in the corinth place.

– However, it’s good that we came to put the package together before the World Cup qualifiers. We learned more from this again, there is still “cleaning” to be done here. 86 points in regular time is too much for the opponent, we fell asleep sometimes, Markkanen reminded.

The national match was a general practice before the upcoming World Cup qualifying window and the European Championships in Prague and Berlin. Next Thursday, August 25, Susijengi will face Israel in Tampere in the World Cup qualifiers, and on Monday, August 28, Finland will meet Estonia in Tallinn.