The commentators in this game couldn’t stop talking about how Lauri Markkanen had “returned” and how his “stroke” was “back”. The mystical codeword “February” was invoked multiple times. So I checked the stats, and they do seem to indicate that Markkanen played much better than in February than he has so far in March.
In February, he had a streak of eleven straight twenty-point games extending for basically the whole month, and within that larger streak was a mini-streak of three thirty-point games. Bulls fans could barely keep their pants on. In March, this is only his second twenty-point game. Bulls fans have no problem remaining fully clothed when the Markksman is missing the markk as has been the case this month.
Young players are expected to go through ups and downs. No young player is going to go out there and perform well every single night without fail, unless they’re rookie LeBron James (or post-December Trae Young; as the kids say, don’t ‘at’ me). But the Bulls do become a lot more watchable when their franchise cornerstone is dropping in thirty-burgers via jumpshots only, as he did in this one.
Lauri Markkanen jumperilation incoming? Maybe! If you want to help me make up my mind, post “Lauri’s jumpers excite me” in the comments of this video.