The Milwaukee Bucks know it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the health of Giannis Antetokounmpo, and as such, the MVP frontrunner is going to get an MRI on his knee. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Antetokounmpo hurt his left knee during the team’s 113-103 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, and in response, they’ll take a precautionary look at things.
Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is getting a precautionary MRI on his left knee, league sources tell ESPN. The MVP landed hard on the floor and tweaked the knee in second half of the loss to the Lakers Friday night, but stayed in the game.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 7, 2020
Here’s a video of the incident. Antetokounmpo made his way into the rim by bowling over Avery Bradley, and after dunking, he landed awkwardly amid a crowd of Lakers.
Here’s that scary fall with Giannis again.
Hence, the reason why he shouldn’t try to dunk everything.
Attack mode is great, but he’s gotta be smart. Worth too much to his team. pic.twitter.com/S41vzND0p9
— JoshCarsonJC3 (@JoshCarsonJC3) March 7, 2020
After the game, Malika Andrews of ESPN reported that Antetokounmpo was adamant that he was going to be ok.
Giannis Antetokounmpo said that his knee is “good.” He was wearing a compression sleeve on his left leg and was limping around the locker room. He also got three stitches in his lip after the game.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) March 7, 2020
Antetokounmpo is the runaway favorite to be named the league MVP for the second year in a row, so obviously, the Bucks would be smart to be ultra-conservative here and make sure his body’s in a good place heading into the playoffs. Seeing as how they’ve already secured a playoff berth and are 8.5 games up on the Toronto Raptors for the 1-seed in the Eastern Conference, Antetokounmpo missing a game or three might not end up being the worst thing in the world. On the year, Antetokounmpo is averaging 29.6 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 5.8 assists in 30.9 minutes per game.
Written by: Uproxx