MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo will be sidelined through the All-Star break due to a left calf strain, coach Doc Rivers confirmed on Sunday prior to the team’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers. Antetokounmpo, the league’s second-leading scorer, has not played since Feb. 2, due to a combination of lower-body issues.
Antetokounmpo will also miss next Sunday’s All-Star Game, Rivers confirmed. He was named a starter for the game and was picked by Charles Barkley’s team in last week’s draft.
“There’s no greater severity, we’re just gonna be very cautious with it,” Rivers said. “Those things linger and we’re not gonna take any chances.”
Rivers added that the team is hopeful that Antetokounmpo will be ready to go for their first game coming out of the break on Feb. 20 against the Los Angeles Clippers. “We’re really hoping that when we come out of the break, we have our team,” Rivers said. “That’s the hope.”
Antetokounmpo was ruled out of the Bucks’ showdown with the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 3, the second night of a back-to-back, with patellar tendinopothy in his right knee. That seemed more precautionary than anything given the Bucks’ busy schedule.
However, a few days later, Antetokounmpo was a late scratch from the team’s road game against the Charlotte Hornets. He went through his usual pre-game warm-up, but departed for the locker room shortly before the national anthem and did not come on the court when he was announced as a starter. The team later announced his absence was due to left calf tightness.
Antetokounmpo was subsequently ruled out for the team’s games against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday and the Sixers on Sunday.
“He wanted to play the Charlotte game, didn’t feel great once we went out on the floor,” Rivers said. “That was a game-time decision, thank god he didn’t play. From there we’ve just been monitoring it and it just hasn’t improved enough for us to play him.
“If this was a playoff game would he play? Probably yes, but this is not and we want to make sure he’s playing in the playoffs. We haven’t been playing well over the last seven games, we’d love to have him, but you still have to be smart at the end of the day. It’s more important to get him healthy.”
Antetokounmpo is in the midst of another spectacular season for the Bucks: 31.8 points, 12.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.3 blocks on 60.9% shooting. He’s on pace to become the first player ever to average at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists over three full seasons.
In each of the past two seasons, though, Antetokounmpo was unable to continue that dominance into the playoffs. He missed the majority of the first three games of the team’s first-round series against the Miami Heat in the 2023 playoffs due to a lower back contusion and the entirety of the team’s first-round series versus the Indiana Pacers in the 2024 playoffs with a left soleus strain.
Rivers said “I don’t think so,” when asked if this current left calf strain is related to that soleus strain. He did, though, make it clear that Antetokounmpo does not want a repeat of his previous experiences.
“Giannis is very aware that he hasn’t played in the last two years in the playoffs,” Rivers said. “That is very important to him.”
