Lauri Markkanen’s 43 points lead Finland to 109-79 rout of Britain at EuroBasket

TAMPERE, Finland: Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen scored 29 of his 43 points in the first half in a dazzling performance that highlighted Finland’s 109-79 rout of Britain at EuroBasket on Friday.

Markkanen played just 23 minutes while matching his EuroBasket high for points, set in 2022 against Croatia. He was four points off the all-time tournament record of 47 points by Slovenia’s Luka Doncic against France in 2022.

Finland are tied at 2-0 with Germany and Lithuania in Group B, which is being played in Tampere, Finland. Britain dropped to 0-2.

Markkanen, who scored 28 points in a 93-90 win over Sweden on Wednesday, shot 9 of 15 from the field in his 14 first-half minutes. He made five 3s in the first half and finished with seven, his last one giving Finland an 84-56 lead early in the fourth quarter. He was on the bench for the last 7 1/2 minutes.

Markkanen overshadowed teammate Sasu Salin, who shot 7 of 9 on 3s for all 21 of his points. Olivier Nkamhoua added 13 for Finland. Britain got 13 points from Luke Nelson.

Jokic, Jovic lead Serbia

Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets had 23 points and 10 rebounds and the Miami Heat’s Nikola Jovic added 18 points and six boards as tournament favorite Serbia defeated Portugal 80-69 in Riga, Latvia. Serbia improved to 2-0 in Group A and Portugal dropped to 1-1.

Jovic’s inside basket early in the third quarter gave Serbia it’s biggest lead, 53-35, and Portugal never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Diogo Brito had 22 points and nine rebounds to lead Portugal and Travante Williams had 15 points and five steals.

Germany roll past Sweden

Sacramento Kings guard Dennis Schroder scored a game-high 23 points and made seven assists to lead