November 18: Antetokounmpo’s MRI “went pretty well,” according to Rivers, who said during an appearance on Courtside with Gale Klappa podcast that the Bucks star will “probably” miss two weeks (Twitter audio link via Nehm).
ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets that it’s a “low-grade” strain for Antetokounmpo and is expected to sideline him for a week or two.
November 17: Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo sustained a left groin strain in the second quarter of Monday’s game in Cleveland and will not return for the second half, the team announced (Twitter link via Eric Nehm of The Athletic).
Antetokounmpo appeared to suffer the injury on a drive to the basket, according to Nehm, who tweets that the Greek forward hobbled back down the court on defense, committed a foul, and then checked himself out of the game and walked to the locker room. Harris Stavrou of SPORT24 has a partial video of the incident (Twitter link).
Antetokounmpo will undergo an MRI on Tuesday, according to head coach Doc Rivers (Twitter links courtesy of Nehm).
“We won’t know anything until tomorrow. Didn’t look great, I can tell you that,” Rivers said. “ … He grabbed (his groin), I want to say in the first quarter and I asked him then. He said it was fine. Then I think he grabbed it again and he said it was fine. And then the third time, you know, is when it happened. But I think it happened earlier, in my opinion.”
Backup big man Jericho Sims started the second half with Antetokounmpo unavailable, Nehm adds (via Twitter).
A two-time MVP who has finished no worse than fourth in voting for the award in each of the past seven years, Antetokounmpo was off to arguably the best start of his decorated career in 2025/26 prior to the injury, averaging 32.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 1.3 blocks through 12 games (33.4 minutes per contest).
The 30-year-old entered Monday’s game on the injury report with a probable tag due to an unrelated issue with his left knee (patellar tendinopathy) before being upgraded to available. Rivers said last week that injury isn’t considered serious.
While it’s unclear how much time Antetokounmpo will miss as a result of the groin injury, it’s probably not a great sign that it was quickly diagnosed as a strain — even relatively mild groin strains can be tricky to recover from.
Sims and Bobby Portis are the most obvious candidates for more minutes with Antetokounmpo out for a yet-to-be-determined amount of time. Myles Turner figures to take on an expanded offensive role as well.
Another injury… something is going on
Too many games in too short a timeframe
For the editors… per AP style, buildings sustain damage, people suffer injuries.
link to x.com
Well, look at that! I stand corrected. Been a minute since I was in the hot seat…
Always appreciate a grammar note though! That’s one I’ve thought about before — I use “suffered” sometimes but sort of prefer “sustained” since I feel like “suffering” implies or suggests an intensity of feeling that doesn’t necessarily apply to more minor injuries.
Yep. I see that. Thanks for all you do!
I’m not embarrassed to admit I’m fascinated with when and how to use the dashes, the semicolon, and the colon, Big Grammar Chuck and Luke Adams. On occasion, I read the articles here just for that.
He talked to ownership he said trade em to the lakers for AR 15 it’s obvious with a ghost injury
Nah he is going to Dallas to play with Cooper flag it will be part of moving Davis so bucks can rebuild
Nah he wants to be the king of Milwaukee Wisconsin and play for Marquette
They’ll probably make him the assistant coach like trae young…ncaa is corrupt
He played with something even before this injury. And I think it was not only knee tendonitis. There was something else. A bad lower back, rib pane, groin or smth like that.
There were games were he didn’t take a single shot in the 1st quarter or only shot long jumpers.
He looked fine at EuroBasket.
Did he do something in the preseason? Or just long-standing issues not fully healed?
It’s incredible that he has been so good despite not being at 100% from day 1.
So two weeks mean roughly seven games for the Bucks… 1-6 anyone?