As Bucks Return Home, Giannis — And Fans — Remain Questionable

Giannis Antetokounmpo is undoubtedly a super-star and, well, something of a freak of nature — or, at least, when it comes to basketball.

But even Antetokounmpo was nervous when he learned he’d need to undergo a precautionary MRI last weekend after landing awkwardly on his left knee following a dunk against the Lakers last Friday.

“Yeah,” Antetokounmpo said Wednesday afternoon. “I s—t my pants.”

Fortunately for the Bucks, the MRI revealed no structural damage to the knee, just a minor sprain of the joint capsule. Antetokounmpo sat out Milwaukee’s loss to the Nuggets Monday night in Denver and went through a full practice Wednesday without issue but his status for the Bucks’ game Thursday night is still to be determined, head coach Mike Budenholzer said.

“He looked good but with something like this, you always want to wait and see how he’ll respond and how he comes in tomorrow,” Budenolzer said. “We’ll take it slowly and probably err on the side of caution but it was a good day for Giannis.”

It hasn’t exactly been a good time for the Bucks, though. They come into the game riding a season-high three-game losing streak, their longest slump since dropping four straight to the Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals last year and longest regular-season skid since losing four straight between Feb. 28-March 2, 2018.

Antetokounmpo, however, chucked at the suggestion that his team was going through something of a “tough stretch,” even relatively speaking.

“I lost (11) in row my rookie year, so this isn’t tough at all,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’re a good team. Losing three in a row, that’s not tough.”

Antetokounmpo has a point but, relatively speaking, the Bucks have looked little like the dominant machine that put them in the conversation for best regular-season squads of all-time. Since the All-Star break, Milwaukee ranks just 25th in offensive efficiency, 12th in points per game and 28th in 3-point shooting percentage.

“I think the group knows and understands that we can certainly be better,” Budenholzer said. “You always want to keep improving and sometimes that happens when you don’t win games. I think the group is very confident. They’re in a good place and I think they understand this is part of the journey.”

Some of the Bucks’ struggle be attributed to what had been something of a challenging schedule. The Bucks played nine of their last 12 games on the road and the last five of those contests came in an eight-day stretch that included a cross-country flight. 

The good news for the Bucks: they still have a comfortable lead over Toronto for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and a three games ahead of the Lakers for the best overall record in the NBA, and they’re about to enter a stretch of schedule that has them playing at home for eight of their next 10 games.

“Everybody goes through their little moments of the schedule,” head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “It’ll be great to be home, away from planes and hotels for awhile and back in front of our fans.”

Of course, it remains to be seen if the Bucks — or any NBA teams — will be playing in front of any fans as the league continues monitoring the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Wednesday’s media availability was held in the lobby of the Bucks’ practice facility, as opposed to its usual on-court location, and reporters were kept the requisite 6-8 feet away from Antetokounmpo and Budenholzer during the session.

The Golden State Warriors, who are slated to face the Brooklyn Nets Thursday night, will become the first league team to host a game in an empty arena after the San Francisco Health Office prohibiting events where 1,000 or more people assemble while the NCAA announced Wednesday that it’s annual men’s and women’s basketball tournaments would go on as scheduled but without fans in attendance.

Such measures could be instituted league-wide as part of efforts to contain the virus and they’re something the Bucks, along with the rest of the league’s players, are preparing for.

“It’s tough,” Antetokounmpo said. “I don’t even remember the last time I played like that. Sometimes in Europe, for preseason games, there’s no fans. But it’s different. I don’t think there’s a player in the world who wants to play without fans but we have to think about our safety and the safety of our fans.”

Budenholzer agreed with Antetokounmpo and veteran shooting guard Kyle Korver that there’s definitely something to be said for the energy provided by a raucous, boisterous home crowd but at the same time, didn’t think his team would have any trouble getting mentally prepared for a game in such a scenario.

“It will be very different, a little bit unusual,” Budenholzer said. “But watching our guys play pickup ball in August with nobody there, their intensity competitive juices … it’s amazing.

“I’m sure its the same for other teams. The league and the board of governors will decide what’s best and we’ll follow the direction. We want the fans and the players to be in a safe place, if we have to play in (empty arenas) we’ll figure out a way to make the best of it.”