{"id":373891,"date":"2025-12-28T10:37:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373891\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T10:37:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:37:06","slug":"antetokounmpo-scores-29-for-bucks-against-bulls-after-missing-8-games-with-calf-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373891\/","title":{"rendered":"Antetokounmpo scores 29 for Bucks against Bulls after missing 8 games with calf strain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Giannis Antetokounmpo returned Saturday night from the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-f0726b22e636e09a5b8a6606c165ba6c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">right calf strain<\/a> that kept the two-time MVP from playing in the Milwaukee Bucks\u2019 previous eight games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The two-time MVP scored a game-high 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bucks-bulls-score-antetokounmpo-1089d6cb22e1f5540b34f8c33e463f57\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">112-103 victory over the Chicago Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He blocked the Bulls\u2019 first field-goal try and ended the game with a dunk to cap his first action <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/giannis-antetokounmpo-milwaukee-bucks-e31dd271a2e4639b840a994368e5319c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">since Dec. 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIn the past, when I was younger, I think the recovery process for me was way faster,\u201d said Antetokounmpo, who turned 31 this month. \u201cNow you\u2019ve got to be patient with everything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI think I followed everything step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Antetokounmpo was in the starting lineup for the Bucks\u2019 game against the Chicago Bulls, after the team originally listed him as questionable on the injury report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe goal is to stay healthy,\u201d Antetokounmpo said, \u201cand be available for the team and make the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said before the game the nine-time All-Star won\u2019t be thrown back into the grind right away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe\u2019ll be on a minutes restriction,\u201d Rivers said before the game. He played almost 25 minutes on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Antetokounmpo hasn\u2019t played since injuring his calf less than three minutes into the Bucks\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bucks-pistons-score-b802531d51a26445b1a312eb6386c76f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">113-109 victory<\/a> over the Detroit Pistons on Dec. 3. The injury came on Antetokounmpo\u2019s fourth game back after a left adductor strain caused him to miss four games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMaybe it was a mistake of me coming back a little bit earlier, because once I come back, now you\u2019re overcompensating,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bucks-antetokounmpo-trade-rumors-0b3e1f1ec01bb8ab7c1271765a2ce7da\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Antetokounmpo said<\/a> Dec. 18. \u201cThe only way you can pop your soleus is by overcompensating and then having an extreme amount of load or play a lot of games in a short period of time. Again, I think all of the things that I was thinking and trying to come back led to the incident that I had with my soleus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Bucks went 2-6 in the eight games Antetokounmpo missed because of the calf issue. So far this season, the Bucks are 10-8 with Antetokounmpo and 3-11 without him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Antetokounmpo has averaged 28.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Giannis Antetokounmpo returned Saturday night from the right calf strain that kept the two-time MVP&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[182944,355,99,182945,182946],"class_list":{"0":"post-373891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-man-break-into-office","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-stealing-drugs","12":"tag-veterinarian-office-broken-into"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373891","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=373891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}