1 stud and 1 dud from last night’s win over Thunder

Stud of The Game: Lauri Markkanen

Lauri Markkanen has been criticized a lot recently, however, last night he came up big in a huge situation. With the Cavs leading 103-102 with only about ten seconds remaining on the game clock, the “Finnisher” took a pass from Garland and launched a three, that found the bottom of the net, to put the Cavs up for good. It was a huge play from the new Cavalier player and showed how important he is to this teams’ success. Last night he came up big in an even bigger spot. Overall, Markkanen had a pretty good road trip and closed it out in style.

Over the course of the six-game west coast adventure, Markkanen seems to have drawn a lot of criticism, which is, if you look at the numbers, very unfair. In the last six games, Markkanen has shot over 50% from the field and connected on over 41% of his three-point attempts.

When Koby Altman made the move to acquire the big man, it was looked at as an underwhelming off-season addition. However, that could not be further from the truth. Markkanen’s size and versatility have allowed the Cavs to play a lot of minutes with their “big” lineup, and a lot of that is because of Markkanen’s versatility. Not a lot of 6’11” players can play the wing, but Markkanen can and he’s been huge for the Cavaliers this season, especially of late.