MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo will return from a short two-game absence on Thursday night when the team takes on the Brooklyn Nets. Antetokounmpo had missed the team's win over the Phoenix Suns and loss to the Boston Celtics with a hamstring injury.
"It's not an injury, we're just concerned a little bit," Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said after Sunday's game. "Plus, you look at the schedule, you have one, two, three, four five days off. We planted it in him and he had to do [decide to not play]. Which, we're happy that he decided to do it."
All told, Antetokounmpo ended up with a full week off, which was a much-needed break for the two-time MVP. He has only missed five games all season and is on pace to hit the 70-game mark for the first time since 2019. While he could have played in the games against the Suns and Celtics, the Bucks were looking ahead to the playoffs, and rightly so. As we saw last season, they need him to be 100% come April.
The hamstring issue first popped up in the Bucks' win over the Los Angeles Clippers on March 10, and Antetokounmpo was riding the stationary bike to try and stay loose when he was not in the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 14
"Calfs, hamstrings, they're shaky," Antetokounmpo said after the win over the Sixers. "If you have a strain or whatever the case may be... you don't mess with stuff like that."
Antetokounmpo is averaging 30.8 points, 11.2 rebounds and a career-high 6.4 assists on a career-high 61.6% from the field. He has once again played himself into the MVP conversation, but has admitted this has been his "hardest" season in the league due to an offseason procedure on his knee, a mid-season coaching change and how he's had to adapt to Damian Lillard's arrival.
While the Bucks are 44-25 and in second place in the Eastern Conference, they have not looked like a title contender for much of the season. They have been better under Rivers lately, though, and with Antetokounmpo in the lineup they should get back to their winning ways against the lowly Nets.
