The Utah Jazz’s Finnish power-forward, who crushed Croatia, threatens Spain’s onslaught in their eleventh consecutive Eurobasket semifinals
After crushing Croatia in the round of 16 by a superlative, Lauri Markkanen stands in the way of Spain’s attack in their 11th consecutive Eurobasket semi-final since 1999. Despite going to the big continental event with low expectations this time around, saying goodbye to a generation that has catapulted Spanish basketball to the highest level in its history, the team led by Sergio Scariolo has deftly surprised strangers with a choral play that now gives them permission to dream. The epic victory over Lithuania, sealed in extra time, has once again placed La Familia at the gates of playing metal. There is only one stumbling block to fight for the medals. And that is none other than the ice giant that leads Finland.
The 43 points and 9 rebounds he signed against Croatia made the Utah Jazz’s new power forward one of the main stars of a championship in which yet another flying Finn delivers the formidable feat of looking from you to you in the individual section to Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, two aliens who can move the world using their enormous talents as levers. It was the third game over 30 points in the European Championship for this seven-legged friend whose physique and ability to shoot the rival edge from the perimeter began to draw comparisons, always repulsive, with the incomparable Larry Bird or the more recent Dirk Nowitzki shortly after that he decided to exchange his icy homeland for arid and hot Arizona.
Inside those suitcases he took to Tucson, the home of the Wildcats, was the dream of Pekka, a former Finnish international who passed through the prestigious University of Kansas but could never make the jump to the NBA. Lauri, the latest in a saga completed by Miikka, who was sidelined prematurely by injuries from the sport of the basket, and Eero, a slender striker who went ingloriously through the ranks of Castilla and makes his living today at HIFK Helsinki in the Veikkausliiga , took over from his father, making the family name famous, first in the Chicago Bulls and then in the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Five campaigns in the best competition in the world in which his flight, however, was below expectations. Until it finally hatches in that unicorn capable of propelling the team led by Lassi Tuovi to what is already the Baltic team’s best performance in a Eurobasket since 1967, when they finished sixth as hosts in a tournament that was awarded the Soviet Union and in which Spain was defeated for the second and last time in its history.
Contains the pulse of Markkanen, very well guided in the Championship so far by two well-known Spanish parishioners such as Sasu Salin (Lenovo Tenerife) and Elias Valtonen (BAXI Manresa), as well as veteran Petteri Koponen (currently in the Helsinki Seagulls, but with a past Khimki, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, among others), will be the main challenge a Spanish team will have to face for whom the victory over Lithuania has been a huge morale boost.
Being able to pull out of the tournament a team that came in hoping for a medal paints a good picture of the competitive fierceness of a capitalized team where the group has the upper hand over individualities but where leadership shines in the direction of Lorenzo Brown , the defensive sacrifice of Scariolo’s dogs, the strength of some young talents who have proven themselves well prepared to take command and the veteran of the inexhaustible Rudy Fernández.
“It is really a very difficult confrontation at the tactical level because it is a rival who plays in an original, atypical and very effective way, with five players on the edge and with a world-class star like Markannen. It is the team that is the best of three shoots and that runs the most in the transition,” Scariolo warned in the previous. “The task of our players will be very demanding and I hope we have the maximum respect and the maximum hardness of impact, because it is a team that drives you crazy if you let it play. Offensively we have to play our game, play our advantages and take care of the rebound,” added the transalpine.
Source: La Verdad
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