Crazy to say this after Lauri put up 32/11/4, but it was not a good game for him. He was good in the second half of 1st quarter, and scored points during the last minutes of the match, but for much of the game he was sulking and yelling at the refs, and got into foul trouble. At times I had to blink my eyes to make sure it was Lauri and not Luka on the field (both in good and bad).
The finnish players, even Lauri, had some nightmarish issues with ball-handling and passing. Lithuania started with man-to-man defense, and Lauri was in trouble, because some seriously physical bumping seemed to be allowed. Then Lithuania switched to zone, and Lauri feasted. Lithuania then switched back to man-to-man, and Lauri started to yell at the refs. In fourth quarter, when Lithuania led by 10 points, they switched back to zone, and Lauri began feasting again.
The match was curios in that sense that there were seemingly an unlimited amount of time-outs. In friendly matches teams can agree to that, and apparently it had been agreed on. At one point during second quarter Lithuania had two timeouts within 25 seconds. This did break the flow of the match quite a bit, but it allowed both teams to use different tactics and different players (and player-combos).
In the end, I think this was a good game for Lauri. He has to learn to keep his head cool even when the refs give him the other kind of special treatment, or when his team-mates act like they have never before in their life seen a basketball.
