Antetokounmpo, 29, suffered the noncontact injury during Milwaukee’s 104-91 home victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. With a little less than four minutes remaining in the third quarter, Antetokounmpo inbounded the ball and began running up the court. After taking a few strides, he fell to the court and clutched the back of his left leg.
The Bucks took a timeout as Antetokounmpo remained seated on the court, and he was eventually able to limp to the locker room under his own power. Antetokounmpo did not return, finishing with 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in 29 minutes as Milwaukee snapped a four-game losing streak.
Bucks Coach Doc Rivers said during his postgame remarks that his concern level about Antetokounmpo’s injury was “high.”
“We were two minutes into a fog when [the injury] first went down, players and coaches,” he said. “We kind of got out of it and went back to playing. … We’re just going to hope for the best.”
Rivers’s concern is well founded. Milwaukee was upset by the Miami Heat in the first round of last year’s playoffs after Antetokounmpo suffered a tailbone injury that limited him to 11 minutes in Game 1 and sidelined him for Games 2 and 3. Without their franchise forward, the Bucks fell into a 2-1 series deficit and went on to lose in five games to the eventual Eastern Conference champion.
Though the Bucks enter Wednesday’s action as the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed, they have staggered to the finish of an unexpectedly complicated season. Milwaukee fired coach Adrian Griffin after just 43 games, but the shake-up didn’t pay immediate dividends. The Bucks are 13-10 since the all-star break under Rivers, including losses last week to the lottery-bound Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors.
Antetokounmpo has averaged 30.4 points, 11.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists this season, and he appears headed for his eighth all-NBA selection. The Bucks are 3-3 without him this season and will close the regular season schedule with two games against the Orlando Magic and one against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Milwaukee holds a one-game lead over the New York Knicks and a two-game lead over the Magic for the East’s second seed.
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