Lauri Markkanen is quickly making a name for himself among Utah Jazz fans. The 25-year-old came out with another eye-popping performance on Wednesday night, exploding for a career-high 49 points in a 131-114 win against the Houston Rockets. At this point, it's no surprise that Markkanen is quickly becoming a household name in Utah.
Markkanen finished his memorable evening with 49 points on 15-of-27 shooting. He also logged eight rebounds, an assist, one block, and zero turnovers in 36 minutes of action. The 7-foot forward also connected on six triples to lead the Jazz to a blowout win over a hapless Rockets side.
Markkanen's explosive performance now has him entering Donovan Mitchell and Karl Malone territory. They are easily two of the greatest players in Jazz franchise history, and it's an ultimate honor for Markkanen to even be mentioned in the same breath as these two icons.
Lauri Markkanen tonight:
49 PTS (career high)
8 REB
15-27 FG
13-13 FTJoins Spida and Malone as the only Jazz with that statline or better since 1990. pic.twitter.com/TlQXOFTPSz
— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 6, 2023
As the above tweet states, only Mitchell and Malone have had a similar output to Markkanen's stat line on Thursday night. This speaks volumes of Lauri's amazing performance, and Jazz fans are hoping that there's more where that came from.
More importantly, though, the Jazz finally got a win. They snapped a five-game losing skid, which incredibly, they have lost by an average margin of just 3.0 points. Lauri Markkanen wanted to make sure that Wednesday's matchup against the Rockets wasn't going to be a close one, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Markkanen will look to keep his hot streak going on Saturday when the Jazz take on the Chicago Bulls.
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