The good news is the Utah Jazz won't have to see Kevin Durant again until February.
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"Another bright spot was Markkanen going toe-to-toe with a future Hall-of-Famer. It was poetic, in a sense, that the game ended with a play involving both Markkanen and Durant since both put their teams on their backs.
Durant had 39 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds; Markkanen answered with 38 points and 17 rebounds. It created a fun back-and-forth of a game that had a bit of everything: big shots, comebacks, buzzer beaters and a bit of controversy, too.
"He's done so much for the game. It's a pleasure to compete against him every time," Markkanen said. "Obviously, he's a heckuva player, and he did his job against us for sure. He's a player I watch film a lot on. It's a pleasure to be able to share the court and compete against that type of player. There's a lot of things I can learn from him."
Markkanen learned something about his own team Sunday, too.
"Obviously, you want to win that kind of game, but it didn't happen tonight," he said. "But we showed that we can play with these guys, and we're moving on to the next one."
