Thanks to Damian Lillard’s heroics for the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings, it was easy to overlook the fact that Giannis Antetokounmpo almost missed the game due to a mysterious injury. The former back-to-back MVP was a late addition to the injury report, which nearly forced him to sit out what turned out to be an instant classic.
Giannis ended up playing through his injury, which in hindsight, was the right decision for a Bucks side that nearly suffered another home loss.
Milwaukee Bucks Star Giannis Antetokounmpo Speaks Out on Injury
Giannis was added to the injury report just a few hours before Sunday’s tip-off. He was dealing with a right shoulder contusion, which apparently, wasn’t too serious. In fact, Antetokounmpo was able to shrug it off to finish the game with 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, to go along with 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and three steals in 40 minutes of action.
After the game, the Bucks talisman spoke out on his new injury and how he simply wasn’t going to let this stop him from suiting up on Sunday night:
“I just want to play games,” he said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I just played a lot of games. What is this Game 40? I’ve only missed one game, which I’m very proud of. I just want to be available for my team because I had an offseason where I wasn’t really playing basketball, I wasn’t able to participate with the (Greek) national team or practice, so basically this is my practice.
“As much as I can be available for the team and available for myself being out there I try to work through habits with the team and movements and all that. I want to be able to do this, this year.”
As Giannis said, he’s only missed one out of Milwaukee’s 40 games played this season. At this rate, he’s on pace to play more games this term than he has over the past five years.
Let’s just hope we don’t jinx it.
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