Giannis Antetokounmpo News: Off injury report for Game 1

As the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacersprepare to open their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series on Saturday, juicy storylines and contentious history abound. After a December 2023 home win over Indiana, Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was incensed when the game ball from his career-best and franchise-record 64-point performance mysteriously disappeared. After briefly heading toward the locker room, Antetokounmpo quickly did a 180, returning to the court to confront several Pacers coaches and their star point guard, Tyrese Haliburton. Meanwhile, multiple Bucks approached the Indiana locker room looking for the basketball … and possibly a bit of trouble.

All this to say, this postseason’s rematch should be more than popcorn-worthy.

Despite the recent fireworks between the two teams, however, Antetokounmpo — healthy for his first playoff game in two years — isn’t going to let any of that drama cloud his vision.

“What happened in the past is in the past. I’m not going to use that as fire to motivate myself this year,” Antetokounmpo told CBS Sports. “They say great players have to have a short memory, and you know, that’s what we’re gonna do.”

While Antetokounmpo will be on the floor to start the series, Lillard won’t. Though he’s reportedly cleared the blood clot in his calf that’s kept him off the floor since late March, he will miss at least Game 1 as he ramps up his activity. It’s a devastating blow to the Bucks offense as Lillard and Antetokounmpo combined to average over 55 points per game during the regular season, the most of any teammate pairing in the NBA.

Lillard also gives the Bucks a historically clutch offensive performer to put next to Antetokounmpo at the end of games. Nobody else on the roster carries that kind of crunch-time gravitas.

“Not having Dame — he’s one of the, I think, most clutch players of all time,” Antetokounmpo said. “He thrives in big games like this. If they could, I don’t think anybody in the NBA would not want to have Damian Lillard on their team in this situation. But, gotta keep on looking forward and you just gotta go out there to compete. You just gotta go out there and give your heart to the game and leave everything on the floor.”

One player tasked with picking up the offensive slack is Kyle Kuzma, whom the Bucks acquired before the trade deadline in exchange for longtime Milwaukee mainstay Khris Middleton. While Antetokounmpo acknowledged it will be “kind of different and weird” to play postseason games without Middleton, he also praised the commitment to winning he’s seen from Kuzma, who won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.

But no matter how well Kuzma plays and/or how quickly Lillard is able to return — if at all — the Bucks could simply be outmanned by a healthy Pacers team that went 20-9 after the All-Star break. Even if they’re able to get past Indiana, they’ll likely have the 64-win Cleveland Cavalierswaiting for them in the next round. That being said, any team with Antetokounmpo has a puncher’s chance against any opponent.

“My hunger for a championship. That’s it. My hunger for the championship,” Antetokounmpo said when asked what gives him belief that the Bucks can return to the game’s highest level. “I really believe that I help people that are around me and I’m able to elevate them and push them the same way I push myself. And as long as we are healthy, as long as I’m healthy, there’s always a chance.”

Despite his self-confidence, the 30-year-old soon-to-be nine-time All-NBA selection is well aware of how treacherous the Bucks’ path to another title — Antetokounmpo was Finals MVP in the franchise’s only championship win in 2021 — has become due to the extreme talent swimming around NBA waters. Case in point, Antetokounmpo averaged 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists this season on 60% field goal shooting — numbers no NBA player has ever achieved — and he’s been relegated to an afterthought in the MVP conversation. Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić is the first center to ever average a triple-double for a full season, and he may not win either due to the historic year Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put up for Oklahoma City.

“I really believe if the last three to four years, maybe five years of my career that were from 2020 until 2025, and they were, like, from 2010 to 2015, I think I would have won five straight MVPs,” Antetokounmpo told CBS Sports. “But the thing is that talent right now is at an all-time high. What’s going on in the league right now, it’s incredible