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Finland complete perfect EuroBasket warm-up with Poland victory

 Lauri Markkanen could not find his recent form in Finland's win
Lauri Markkanen could not find his recent form in Finland's winPressFocus / ddp USA / Profimedia
Preparations for hosting EuroBasket 2025 from next week could not have gone better for Finland, who won all four of their warm-up friendlies ahead of the tournament, including tonight's 106-87 victory over Poland at the Espoo Metro Areena.

Finland had already secured two wins earlier this month against Belgium (105-62 and 92-74) before beating Poland away from home on Sunday, 97-88.

Those wins all came with huge contributions from Utah Jazz star Lauri Markkanen, who set a new national team scoring record for a single game with 48 points in the first match against Belgium, then surpassed 40 points again with 42 in Poland.

But tonight, the centre went missing, scoring just six points despite playing nearly 18 minutes. The 28-year-old netted just one of the 10 field goals he attempted.

Perhaps Markkanen's failings were a blessing in disguise for Finland, who proved they are not just a one-man team and can still post excellent scoring numbers without their main threat.

The Wolfpack began strongly and held an eight-point lead by the end of the first quarter. At half-time, that had been extended to 19, leading 62-43 in front of a vocal home crowd.

There was no way back for Poland who had only chipped three points off the Finnish advantage by the end of the third, before Finland took the final 10 minutes 22-20 for the 106-87 victory.

Exciting high school prospect Miikka Muurinen scored 10 points on his first outing for the national team this summer, but the top scorer honour went to Olivier Nkamhoua , who scored 18 points. Jordan Loyd notched 17 for Poland, making him the visitor's most prolific shooter.

Focus now turns to Tampere, where the Nokia Arena will host all the Group B matches at EuroBasket 2025, beginning with a local derby between Finland and Sweden on 27th August.

The 24 competing teams at the tournament have been split into four groups of six, with one group each being held in Finland, Cyprus, Latvia and Poland.

Also in Finland's group are Great Britain, Montenegro, Lithuania and Germany. The top four will progress to the knockout stages, and Finland will be aiming to improve on a seventh-placed finish at the previous edition in 2022.

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