{"id":337124,"date":"2025-12-08T15:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/337124\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:10:07","slug":"antetokounmpo-missing-about-4-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/337124\/","title":{"rendered":"Antetokounmpo missing about 4 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE \u2014 Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers said he anticipates Giannis Antetokounmpo missing about a month as the two-time MVP recovers from a\u00a0strained right calf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers said he anticipates Giannis Antetokounmpo missing about a month as the two-time MVP recovers from a strained right calf
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Initial reports have indicated Antetokounmpo would be out two to four weeks
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Rivers suggested Friday it would likely be on the higher end of that timeline
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Rivers emphasized the importance of caution with calf issues to avoid the risk of a player getting hurt more severely<\/p>\n

Initial reports indicated Antetokounmpo would be out two to four weeks. Rivers suggested Friday it would likely be on the higher end of that timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s hope he\u2019s back sooner, but I\u2019m going to guess it\u2019s more in the four-week range,\u201d Rivers said before the Bucks\u2019 116-101 loss<\/a> to the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n

Rivers emphasized the importance of caution with calf issues to avoid the risk of a player getting hurt more severely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may take longer than we want,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cThat even may make Giannis frustrated over it. But we\u2019ve just got to try to get that right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers said Antetokounmpo wouldn\u2019t travel with the Bucks for their Saturday night game at Detroit, which the Bucks lost 124-112, but would accompany the team for most of its away contests while he\u2019s out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thing is, especially because this just happened, with the blood flow, the flights and all that stuff, keep him home,\u201d Rivers said.<\/p>\n

The Bucks had another setback Friday when guard AJ Green, who is shooting nearly 50% from 3-point range, bruised his left shoulder in the second quarter. Rivers said Green would be undergoing an MRI on Saturday in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo injured his calf in the opening minutes of a 113-109 home victory<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday over Detroit.<\/p>\n

He had just assisted on AJ Green\u2019s layup less than three minutes into the game when he headed back up the court and slipped in the painted area. Antetokounmpo went down, clutched his right leg and eventually was helped up before walking to the locker room.<\/p>\n

Rivers said after that game that he believed Antetokounmpo\u2019s injury may have stemmed from contact he made with a Detroit player while driving along the baseline just before passing to Green.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo entered Friday ranked seventh in the NBA in scoring (28.9), ninth in rebounding (10.1) and 19th in assists (6.1).<\/p>\n

The Bucks are 1-6 in games Antetokounmpo has missed this season. They did rally from an 18-point deficit Wednesday against the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons with Antetokounmpo only playing the first three minutes.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s game exemplified the Bucks\u2019 issues in trying to win without Antetokounmpo. Milwaukee committed 10 first-half turnovers that led to 17 Philadelphia points as the Bucks fell behind by as many as 26 points in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see early on our guards were trying to force the action, and that\u2019s easy to guard,\u201d Rivers said after the game. \u201cIt really is. That\u2019s a lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr. said he didn\u2019t feel as though he was pressing too much early \u2013 he attempted only four shots in the first half \u2013 but he acknowledged the responsibility everyone has to help pick up the slack while Antetokounmpo is out.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Ryan (Rollins), we have some shoes to fill while he\u2019s gone,\u201d Porter said. \u201cWe all have some shoes to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo\u2019s injury looked similar to a calf strain that ended Antetokounmpo\u2019s 2023-24 season<\/a> prematurely. Antetokounmpo was heading up the court during an April 9 victory<\/a> over the Boston Celtics that season when he grabbed his left calf and took a seat on the floor before being helped off the court.<\/p>\n

He went on to miss the Bucks\u2019 final three regular-season games as well as their entire six-game loss<\/a> to the Indiana Pacers in the opening round of the playoffs that season.<\/p>\n

This latest calf injury comes after Antetokounmpo missed four games last month with a left adductor strain. The Bucks lost all four of those games.<\/p>\n

Rivers noted that Porter also didn\u2019t play in any of those games while recovering from a knee injury. Porter returned Nov. 29 and is averaging 19.8 points and 5.8 assists this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have \u2018Scoot\u2019 (Porter) and Ryan together,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cIt\u2019s a different team than it was even three weeks ago or four weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

This calf injury occurred the same day ESPN reported that Antetokounmpo and his agent, Alex Saratsis, had started speaking with the Bucks about the nine-time all-NBA forward\u2019s future and whether he\u2019s best suited to stay in Milwaukee or play elsewhere. Rivers disputed<\/a> the report and said that \u201cGiannis has never asked to be traded \u2013 ever. I can\u2019t make that more clear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers said he anticipates Giannis Antetokounmpo missing about a month as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[41445,2722,2724,355,3,7739,99,452,1745],"class_list":{"0":"post-337124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-app-sports","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-spectrum-news-staff","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-wisconsin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}