MILWAUKEE — Last week, as they went through a four-game losing streak — their worst stretch of basketball of the season — the Milwaukee Bucks regularly talked about trying to regain their joy.
Then, almost four minutes into the second quarter of Tuesday’s game, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo poked away the ball from Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard and started to push in transition. With Celtics guard (and former teammate) Jrue Holiday in his face, Antetokounmpo stretched his left arm around the defense and whipped a long pass that bounced twice to Bobby Portis in the left corner. Portis pump-faked a catch-and-shoot 3 and then drove through the Celtics’ defense for a right-handed slam.
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While Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla signaled a timeout to try to slow the Bucks, who had jumped out to a 47-23 lead, Portis shimmied on the baseline as his teammates ran off the bench to celebrate alongside him. While Portis shimmied, Antetokounmpo flexed his arms and mean mugged at the crowd on the other end.
https://t.co/MBtrZ7miM6 pic.twitter.com/uDnFb39pBy
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 10, 2024
For a moment, the Bucks had found their joy once again. They played with that joy throughout the rest of the second quarter while taking a 20-point lead into the half. And they kept that joy as they held onto their lead in the third quarter.
But when Antetokounmpo, the Bucks’ two-time MVP and seven-time All-NBA forward, collapsed without contact with another player at 3:40 in the third quarter, that joy disappeared.
As the Bucks have proven throughout this season, joy is fleeting.
“The first feeling is ‘Oh shoot, it’s my teammate’s down. Game plan. Game plan. OK, he’s down, is he OK? OK, game plan,'” Bucks forward Thanasis Antetokounmpo said after Tuesday’s game. “My second feeling is like ‘Oh my God, that’s my baby brother on the floor. What’s going on?’
“Just hoping it’s nothing crazy. Usually — you know how we’re built — for us, it’s OK, he’s down, come back. When you see the other person can’t come back, which is very rare for us not to be able to come back because we will fight through everything, and we’ll live with what we have.
“It’s hard. That’s the hardest part because then you know it’s kind of, a little bit serious. There’s a frustration part from that side. The good part is like, we got the game, we won, and we’re building good habits, especially against that team.”
On Wednesday morning, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that Antetokounmpo avoided damage to his left Achilles tendon, a best-case scenario for the Bucks. In a release on Wednesday afternoon, the Bucks officially announced Antetokounmpo’s left soleus (calf) injury and that he will receive treatment and evaluation while missing the last three regular-season games.
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That doesn’t change the precarious position the Bucks find themselves in. Not only will the Bucks need Antetokounmpo to return and play well after an injury, but the Bucks have run out of regular season reps for their big three of Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton to get acclimated playing with each other under head coach Doc Rivers.
Let’s look at the injury situation.
Antetokounmpo, through a combination of determination, maniacal rehab work, pain tolerance and strength, has shown an unbelievable ability to recover from injuries to return more quickly than expected throughout his career.
When Antetokounmpo crumpled in a heap after hyperextending his left knee during Game 4 of the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals, no one expected him to be able to play again that season, and yet, six days later, he was back for Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Phoenix Suns. And while he looked somewhat limited in Game 1 of the 2021 NBA Finals, he helped the Bucks win their second NBA championship with a 50-point performance to close out the Suns in Game 6.
In last season’s series against the Heat, some players might not have been able to return from the back contusion that sidelined Antetokounmpo during Game 1 and kept him out of Games 2 and 3, but Antetokounmpo was back on the floor and dominated portions of Game 4 and 5 because of his willingness to go through such an intense rehab schedule that he needed an IV after Game 4.
This season alone, Antetokounmpo has willed himself onto the floor through myriad ailments, including left hamstring tendinopathy, left Achilles tendinitis and right knee tendinitis, and played through injuries that might have forced him to sit out in previous seasons. But now, as the most serious of his injuries has struck right before the postseason, the Bucks will need him to work through discomfort but also avoid putting himself at further risk for an even more serious injury.
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“Just encourage him to get right,” Middleton said of how he can support Antetokounmpo in this moment. “Don’t rush out and risk more injury or make it worse.
“But then also on our end, we just have to find a way to fill the gap together. Not one guy is going to replace him or anything like that, so we have to do a collective effort of playing a complete game and figuring out how to win games without him and play a different style of basketball without him.”
In 2021, Middleton and his Bucks teammates were able to pull the Bucks through Games 5 and 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals with Antetokounmpo on the sideline, but that was three years ago. Middleton has struggled with his own health throughout this season as well, so the Bucks will need to be careful when trying to find the perfect balance between caution and competitiveness.
But while Antetokounmpo avoiding damage to his left Achilles tendon was undeniably positive news on Wednesday and Antetokounmpo has proven quite durable, calf injuries are notoriously tricky for players to deal with. While every injury situation is entirely unique, it is difficult to avoid drawing a line between Antetokounmpo’s current situation with a type of calf strain and an impending push to get ready for playoff basketball and Kevin Durant’s situation with the Golden State Warriors in 2019.
During the Warriors’ second-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets in 2019, Durant suffered a right calf strain late in the third quarter of Game 5 on May 8, 2019. He missed Game 6 against the Rockets, the entirety of the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers and the first four games of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. On June 10, Durant got back out on the floor for Game 5 and tore his right Achilles tendon after 11 minutes and 57 seconds of game action.
Antetokounmpo’s will and determination may end up getting him back for the postseason, but in all likelihood, the Bucks have seen their big three share the floor for the last time before the postseason. That has to be somewhat worrisome, considering they started only eight games together and shared the floor for just 176 minutes under Rivers.
“It’s not perfect, and it’s not going to be perfect, but I think we’ve shown in stretches, and we’ve shown, in games, that it can be really good and we can dominate,” Lillard said. “And I think that usually happens against the best teams. If you look at the game against Oklahoma City, we had it rolling. Even tonight, we had it rolling, I think against Denver, the first time against Boston. So, against the best teams, I think we really lean on each other. We exhaust the things with Giannis and then with Khris and then me, like we just kind of play in that naturally, because we know that we need to do that to take advantage of these good teams.
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“And, I think sometimes playing against teams that aren’t on the level of a Boston or a Denver or Oklahoma City, we see opportunity in other things, so we don’t play the same way. I don’t think it’s as natural, but when it comes down to it and when we get into the playoffs, I think we’ll be able to put it together. And it won’t be perfect then, but I think it’ll be more simple. I think playoff games aren’t as fast paced. There’s more halfcourt possessions. It’s more execution and thinking and being able to get to the things we want to get to. And I think that’ll also help us out. But it is what it is. We got enough, and I think that’s a good problem to have.”
The health of Antetokounmpo comes first and foremost. If he cannot get on the floor, little else will matter for the Bucks. But if he can return, there are still significant concerns moving forward in the postseason, and the Bucks will have to find a way to work them to make a deep postseason run this season.
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(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)