MILWAUKEE — Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out Friday night’s 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets with a right calf injury, which Antetokounmpo said after the game he expected to sideline him for at least four to six weeks.
Antetokounmpo will undergo an MRI on Saturday to reevaluate the injury, which limited him to Friday’s contest. He said the issue is similar to the calf injury that kept him out earlier this season.
“After the MRI, they’re going to tell me, maybe, I put something in my calf or something,” Antetokounmpo said Friday. “This is because of my experience of being around the NBA.”
Antetokounmpo appeared injured in the first quarter and went to the locker room. He returned to the game with a brace on his right calf and played through the injury.
“I felt like most of the game but I didn’t want to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. But finally, I couldn’t move anymore, so I had to stop.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers admitted he thought Antetokounmpo was favoring his leg for much of the second half before subbing him out.
“I asked my people [medical] team five different times,” Rivers said. “I didn’t like what my eyes were seeing, personally. Giannis was defiant about sitting. “
Antetokounmpo has been no stranger to calf injuries in recent years. In December, he missed three weeks with what he later described as a right soleus strain, the same injury that kept him out of the 2024 playoffs.
“This calf keeps coming up, and it’s about,” Rivers said. “I’m not a doctor but I’m smart enough to know that his calf keeps bothering him and something is up. It keeps happening, and that bothers all of us.”
Antetokounmpo sat out 32 minutes despite the injury, finishing with 22 points on 4-of-8 shooting, 13 rebounds and seven assists.
Milwaukee nearly pulled off a late 23-point rally at 10:33 of the fourth quarter with a two-goal layup, but Antetokounmpo loved his leg late in the game and the comeback attempt fell short.
“To stop playing and not be able to move? It was very painful,” Antetokounmpo said. “I was trying to be out there, do whatever I can do, try to touch the game in any way I can. Passing, rebounding, whatever I can do. I feel like even sometimes when I’m in a critical situation, I can be successful. I’ve done it in the past. It’s not the first time, so I was just going to try to be out there and try to help my team in any way I can.”
The potential loss of Antetokounmpo is a big setback for Milwaukee, which lost for the fifth time in its last six games on Friday night. The Bucks (18-26) are in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and trail the Atlanta Hawks by 2½ games at No. 10.
The Bucks are 3-11 this season without Antetokounmpo.
“I’m going to work on my hips to come back,” Antetokounmpo said. “Maybe it will be the end of February, the beginning of March. Hopefully the team will be in a place where we can at least play or play in the playoffs and take it day by day, try to get better.”
