MILWAUKEE – A lost NBA season for superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks continues on Tuesday (Wednesday morning, Singapore time), when they host the stumbling Cleveland Cavaliers.
Antetokounmpo is a game-time decision for the matchup after injuring his left knee while landing on a spinning dunk in the third quarter of a 134-123 home win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
The two-time MVP walked gingerly to the locker room with a left ankle sprain, and the team listed him as questionable against the Cavaliers.
“I saw something live that didn’t look good, honestly,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “I can’t remember what I saw in the video, but yeah. We have no idea.”
Antetokounmpo had 31 points as Milwaukee snapped a four-game skid – its second win in the last 10 games – and crawled within 5 1/2 games of the Charlotte Hornets for the final play-in tournament spot in the Eastern Conference.
The 10-time All-Star is averaging 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists in a career-low 36 games, missing time with right calf and left ankle issues. His 31 missed contests make him ineligible for all postseason awards and most statistical leaderboards.
As a result, the Bucks have been forced to learn to live without Antetokounmpo, a situation that could become permanent if he pursues a trade over the summer.
“I just thought the ball moved and everybody got involved with that,” Rivers added, referring to Bobby Portis contributing 29 points and Ryan Rollins’ 20.
“And as a team, we took care of the ball and we made more threes.”
Cleveland sits fourth in the East and is on its way to the postseason, but has dropped six of its last 11. The positive momentum it built after acquiring James Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers has been blunted.
The Cavaliers’ latest loss was one of their worst of the season, a 130-120 home defeat to the Dallas Mavericks, in which Harden and Donovan Mitchell made just 14 of 36 field-goal attempts.
“It was a bad loss, no doubt about it,” said Mitchell.
“It was all sunshine and rainbows (after the Harden trade), but you have to kind of go through these moments and figure that out. We don’t have time to delay this, but I think this is good for us. We’ll figure things out.”
Meanwhile in NBA action on Monday, Jaylen Brown had 41 points, seven rebounds and six assists to lead the Boston Celtics to a 120-112 victory over the visiting Phoenix Suns.
Brown finished 19 of 21 from the free-throw line, with the makes and attempts both career-best figures. The Celtics also received 21 points from both Jayson Tatum and Derrick White, while Payton Pritchard added 19.
Elsewhere, Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored a career-high – also 41 points – and the Atlanta Hawks won their 10th consecutive game, a 124-112 victory over the visiting Orlando Magic.
Atlanta owns the longest active winning streak in the NBA and the club’s longest winning streak since its franchise-record 19-game run in the 2014-15 season. The result ended Orlando’s seven-game winning streak. REUTERS