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SALT LAKE CITY — Lauri Markkanen did what stars are supposed to do on Tuesday.
As the clock ticked toward one minute remaining, Markkanen got the ball just above the elbow. He turned and faced up Aaron Wiggins, created a hair of space with his shoulder and then stepped back and hit a 20-foot jumper.
On the next possession, he rolled out behind the arc and drilled a deep 3-pointer, sending the Delta Center into bedlam.
That's how Markkanen closed out his 33-point, 11-rebound night in Utah's 124-117 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
"Those are the moments that you play for," Markkanen said. "You want to be in at the end of the games and making a difference. I've been shooting a lot of 3s in my career, and nothing compares to ones that you hit late game, so it feels good."
He had been shooting a lot of those type of 3-pointers, finding the soft spot in the coverage and firing it up, but the isolation before that? That's less common. And Utah fully giving him the ball at the end? Yeah, that too.
Tuesday teased the next evolution of Lauri Markkanen.
"I am not sure that I've really put him in positions to be our closer," Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
He sure did against the Thunder.
The Jazz went to Markkanen for their two biggest possessions, and he delivered both times. Markkanen, for as good and as efficient he's been, isn't a shot creator, per se. He can score in a variety of ways, no doubt, but rarely do the Jazz give him the ball and clear out and let him go to work.
But he's frequently showing he's up to such a challenge. That step-back midrange jumper was a true isolation play; he sized up Wiggins and found space to shoot over him.
"That's an example of growth from Lauri, because that's not something that he's done a lot," Hardy said. "It's something he's worked on a ton but hasn't done a lot in the game yet. So I think he's recognizing how teams are guarding him and understanding that every night it may be something a little bit different for him, and we're fortunate that he has the skill set to do that."
That isolation play wasn't an accident.
If you watch Markkanen after a shootaround or practice, or even before a game, you'll see him practicing the same isolation shot he hit against the Thunder. He watches film of other players and how they create space, and watches himself to see how he can morph his game into more of a closer.
"It's a lot of work, but I think just getting more and more comfortable getting those reps in, and kind of see where my spots are and go from there," Markkanen said. "So I think that there's a lot of room to grow, but I think I made some steps in the right direction, as well. So that's credit to all the coaches pushing me every day."
Markkanen's evolution might have Hardy changing up his end-of-game strategy, too. It's mostly been a share-the-load approach for the Jazz this season when it comes to closing games.
"Lauri's growth and him continuing to be in those situations is probably going to put some pressure on me to operate a lot more through him at the end of the game," Hardy said. "And I think it's a mixture of me looking for it more and also Lauri looking for it more, because it's not something that he's done a ton in his career; and so he and I are trying to grow together in that in that way."
There will be some experimentation as the season goes on, but Markkanen showed on Tuesday, against the best team in the West no less, that he's capable of more.
"There are a lot of conversations between Lauri and myself about what he likes best vs. what I see on the film and when I watch him," Hardy said. "It's a dialogue we're gonna keep having."
