Things were looking great for the Milwaukee Bucks, who entered Tuesday night with a 2-1 lead over the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals after two straight impressive wins. The Hawks evened up the series 2-2 with a 110-88 victory, but that’s a secondary concern right now for the Bucks and their fans.
Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo left the third quarter of Game 4 with a left knee injury that didn’t look good.
Giannis appears to have injured his leg.
Prayers up 🙏 pic.twitter.com/cHZXCIsBEd
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 30, 2021
Prayers up for Giannis 🙏🏾pic.twitter.com/Wz69bjRR0t
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 30, 2021
Giannis briefly returned to the bench, but headed back to the locker room and was soon ruled out for the game with what the team officially called a left knee hyperextension.
Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo has returned to the bench pic.twitter.com/HaedMuNhvP
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) June 30, 2021
Giannis Antetokounmpo (left knee hyperextension) will not return tonight.
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) June 30, 2021
With a healthy Giannis, the Bucks were still quite likely to win this series vs the Hawks and had very real NBA title hopes.
If Giannis has to miss more time (and especially if it’s multiple games), that could change everything for Milwaukee- and it will require Khris Middleton to play much more like he did in Game 3.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.