Giannis Antetokounmpo left the match in the first quarter, but the Milwaukee Bucks overcame it to defeat the Miami Heat 128-99 on Friday and extend their NBA winning run to 13 matches.
Despite the concerns about hand damage, Giannis sustained in the Bucks’ penultimate match before the All-Star break, he began the game and left with right knee damage late in the first quarter. The Bucks didn’t skip a beat as Jrue Holiday led six Milwaukee players in double digits with 24 points as the Bucks outscored the Heat 42-32 in the first quarter to take control ownership.
The Bucks, who are only a match and a half behind the Boston Celtics for first place in the Eastern Conference, added 18 points and 11 rebounds off the bench thanks to Bobby Portis, who returned after missing 11 games due to sickness.
Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks coach, stated, “I thought it was really excellent, the whole group had a good focus coming out of the break, both ends of the court, pushing themselves to be their best”.
In order to remove his top player from the game after Antetokounmpo indicated he was injured, Budenholzer had to request a timeout. Nevertheless, he claimed he was not present when the sickness happened.
Budenholzer stated that he was unsure of the injury’s seriousness at this time and went on, “I haven’t gotten the full breakdown, but I’m pretty sure that either on a drive or a screen or something like that, that he knocked knees with somebody and just wasn’t able to return”.
Jimmy Butler scored 23 points to lead the Thunder. Tyler Herro scored 14 while Bam Adebayo added 18 more points. Miami, though, made just nine of their 40 three-point tries to be successful. On their route to winning by the largest limit of the season, the Bucks hit 19 three-pointers.
