Playing on Tuesday in just his fourth game since January following a lengthy absence due to a calf strain, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 22 points against Phoenix, but gave fans a scare or two when he appeared to tweak that troublesome calf. After the game, head coach Doc Rivers spoke about the injury, saying the calf wasn’t affected and that the incidents weren’t as bad as they initially appeared, as Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes (Bluesky link).
“I was scared,” he said, per The Athletic’s Eric Nehm (Twitter link). “The one time he went down in the first half, he said he was fine, he just tripped over a guy’s foot, so there was no injury. And then he got hit in the groin. And I’m thinking that’s a calf, the way he went down… and then he was just winded.”
Antetokounmpo ended up playing 32 minutes in the loss, his highest minutes total since January 23.
We have more injury news from around the league:
- Bucks forward Taurean Prince, who has been out since November after undergoing surgery to address a herniated disk in his neck, returned to action on Tuesday. “It’s cool because, honestly, I didn’t think he’d play this year,” Rivers said, per Nehm (via Twitter). “The fact that he’s worked the way he’s worked to get back on the floor, it’s just all about him and who he is. It really is. It’s really a cool thing.” The Bucks’ head coach went on to elucidate how important Prince’s presence was throughout the season, even when he was hurt. “When he got injured, we grabbed him and told him, ‘Welcome to the coaching staff’ because that’s basically what he was gonna be this year,” the coach said. “And early on, it did look like that. He was in a brace, couldn’t really do anything. And then as his neck started healing, hope came.”
- Wizards guard Trae Young missed Tuesday’s against the Heat, which turned out to be a historic contest, due to knee injury management, the team tweeted. Young recently returned to play for Washington after speculation that he would miss the rest of the season following his trade from the Hawks. He has yet to play more than 20 minutes in a game for Washington.
- Josh Hart is being listed as questionable for the Knicks‘ game against the Jazz on Wednesday due to left knee soreness, Steve Popper notes (Twitter link). Hart has suited up for the last 15 Knicks games, and while he’s averaging just 28.7 minutes per game, he is coming off one of his heaviest workloads of the season, playing nearly 37 minutes in Monday’s loss to the Clippers.