Sweden suspended Laurie Markkanen for a while.
But after Sweden collapsed in third place, the NBA star led Finland to victory in the World Cup playoffs.
– We came out a little scared in the second half, says Simon Bergander.
Sweden beat Finland with ten points and the first qualifying match at home. The guys until their comeback got a boost for the Finnish national team from NBA star Lori Markanen.
However, Sweden did a very good first period and was removed Cleveland CavaliersPlayers who scored only two points. At the same time, Sweden made an offensive and was 29-19 ahead of the others.
Finland came back in the second half and gradually reduced the distance, but Sweden still led with 46-43 in the first half after playing good defensive play and ten points by Denzel Anderson.
“We let them come back in, we talked about it and we explored it, and you see they’re getting very offensive returns and scoring for them,” Anderson tells SVT.
collapse in the third
Markkanen put the third to 46-46 at the start of the third. That was the beginning of a Finnish fool. The host team ousted Ludwig Haakansson and Sweden faced major scoring problems.
The breakdown continued and Finland took a full 69-54 to the last after the home team won the period 26-8.
Denzel Anderson gave Sweden some hope when he scored two goals in a row at the start of the fourth half. But when Markkanen, who entered the match more and more, scored his 22 points, Finland again had a reassuring lead by 13 points.
‘It’s absolutely unbelievable’
In the end they lost 85-69.
We start the first half very well. In other cases we go down. They had more energy than us, we came out a little scared in the second half. Simon Bergänder says: “We will continue to drive on what we had until we can get into the game.”
– It’s absolutely incredible. I met him before when I played under 20, then he was also very cool and he got better and better.
Union captain Ludwig Degernas was also not happy with the effort.
– Guys start very well, we pass the role and do what we want. They do a little other tactical stuff and we get a little sluggish. We should have done a better job. I should have helped the guys a bit more because we got a little bit of ball movement unfortunately, he told SVT and continued:
The second half is not enough, we have to demand more from ourselves, both coaches and players if we want to compete at this level.
Sweden still has a chance to advance to the next World Cup qualifiers, but then Croatia must lose the remaining two matches. If Sweden wins the European champion against Slovenia on Sunday.