The Finland national basketball team runs through Lauri Markkanen.
And the Utah Jazz star forward certainly looks up to the task this summer.
Markkanen is donning his Finnish uniform to prepare for the upcoming EuroBasket tournament, and in the nation's first preparation game ahead of the tourney, Markkanen went off.
His stats vs. Belgium in a 105-62 win:
- 48 points
- 17-24 FG
- 7-13 3FG
- 9 rebounds
It's a Finnish national team record.
The highlights are pretty darn impressive, too:
🇫🇮 @MarkkanenLauri drops a national team career-high 48 PTS in @basketfinland's win in #EuroBasket preparation game! 🥶@UtahJazz | @NBA
— FIBA EuroBasket (@EuroBasket) August 8, 2025
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Markkanen has had one of those careers where he truly seems to keep getting better every year, for a long time now.
This summer at EuroBasket could be the culmination of that. Finland is by no means a basketball powerhouse, but they have Markkanen, and if he plays like this, that could carry his country a long way.
The 7-footer has spent the past three seasons with Utah and really blossomed. With the Jazz, he averaged 23.0 points and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 38% from 3-point range.
He's still just 28 years old, conceptually still very much in his prime.
The rest of European basketball better look out this summer, and then Markkanen will hope to carry some of this momentum forward into the upcoming NBA season as the Jazz try to push their franchise back in a better direction.
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