Giannis Antetokounmpo returns to the lineup and asserts his seriousness for the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.
CHICAGO — Those 48 minutes Milwaukee played against the Bulls at the United Center on Saturday, there was the game it could have been, and then there was the game it became, a desperately needed 112-103 victory that stopped the Bucks’ bleeding for the moment.
In a parallel universe, maybe Giannis Antetokounmpo nurses his sore right calf for another night or two and a deep, feisty Chicago team manages to take on an opponent that has lost six of its last eight games. But in reality, on a difficult night, with both teams working through the second game of a back-to-back, Antetokounmpo came back and immediately reminded the 20,934 fans and the NBA who he was and why.
“Obviously we struggled the last month without Giannis,” teammate Bobby Portis said. “People kind of take it for granted that he’s Top 75, that he’s a top three or top five player in the world right now. So we add him to the team, the dynamic of our team changes immediately.
“It worked wonders for us tonight, didn’t it, finding him?”
Do you think? The Bucks came in with a 12-19 record, tied for their worst mark through 31 games in the Antetokounmpo era. The main reason was simple: He had missed 14 of those games, several with groin soreness, and then eight more since straining his right calf Dec. 3 against Detroit.
With him they went 9-8pretty bumpy as they went through more injuries and various casting and role changes. Without him, a fuggedabuddem 3-11.
But he showed himself Saturday as “questionable” on the team’s injury report, his medical protocols followed, his work on the field leading up to his completed return. Antetokounmpo was there in the pregame minutes, testing his mobility and lift via various layup line moves.
Soon after, he made it official, squashing Matas Buzelis’ layup attempt just 23 seconds into the game. By the end of the quarter, he had seven points, then, in the second, he rained down a series of four straight dunks during a 12-2 run that put the Bucks up 48-33.
Antetokounmpo did his team damage, with coach Doc Rivers and his staff making big calculations to use his restricted 28 minutes to the greatest possible effect.
“We wanted to get minutes in the first half so we could give him three turnovers in the second half,” Rivers said. “He obviously hated it. The second time we took him out, I thought he was going to go crazy. We did it, we got through it.”
Rivers said Milwaukee has time to dig in and make progress in the East.
“I think we’re still in the playoffs or play-in, and we haven’t played a good game yet,” the coach said. “We have a chance to succeed here. But it’s not going to happen overnight. And we need more than just Giannis coming back. We all need to play better, coach better, run better, rebound better.”
The Bucks star finishes with 29 points in less than 25 minutes, making 10 of his 15 shots and eight of his 10 free throws. He was plus-13, meaning Chicago outscored Milwaukee by four in Antetokounmpo’s 23 minutes.
But the difference he made on his team went well beyond the stat sheet. A spring in the step of the other Bucks, chatter that was a little louder than it might have been if Antetokounmpo had simply hid on the bench in a sweat, a swagger up and down the roster.
“All of the above,” Rivers said. “Confidence. When a team goes on a run and you have them on the floor, you feel like you’re going to take a bucket. Or get a good shot. Where, when you don’t… you can continue those droughts.”
Accumulating points had sometimes seemed grueling for Milwaukee during the absence of its leader. Rivers also talked about Antetokounmpo’s defense, his rim protection, his rebounding.
“But trust,” he again emphasized. “Listen, when Jordan wasn’t playing, I don’t think the Bulls had the same confidence as when he was. Same thing as Kobe — you can just go down the roster. Those guys, they bring confidence to everyone.”
Ryan Rollins, who scored 20 for the Bucks, hit big shots late thanks to Antetokounmpo’s “gravity” — the double teams he forms as a scoring threat, opening up Rollins, AJ Green and others.
“Everyone knows what they’re doing,” Rollins said. “Just to have that strength, that identity, that person on the way back, it’s awesome, that’s for sure.”
No one was happier than Antetokounmpowho punctuated his comeback with a windmill dunk with 1.9 seconds remaining. Uh oh: Chicago had conceded, expecting the Greek Freak to dribble down the clock. At the sound of the horn, Nikola Vučević and Coby White confronted him, then Portis raised the temperature by intervening fiercely.
Was it a problem that Antetokounmpo violated a basketball decourtumviolating the unwritten rules of the old school? » Portis mocked.
“There’s no such thing as the old book. It’s a new era,” the veteran Bucks forward said. “When they have a tournament during the season, then people are expected to score (until the end). What’s the difference?
“It’s not 1990, bro. It’s 2025. ’26 in a minute.”
A new year is approaching and Milwaukee has its guy back.
Steve Aschburner has been writing about the NBA since 1980. You can email him herefind his archives here And follow him on.
