SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo is scheduled to travel to New York on Monday to undergo tests and get further evaluation of his injured right wrist, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday night because neither the Bucks nor Antetokounmpo have made the plans public.
ESPN first reported that Antetokounmpo was heading to New York, and it was later confirmed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Antetokounmpo suffered a wrist injury Thursday night in Chicago after trying to block a shot. Antetokounmpo came off after just nine minutes and did not return. He had X-rays taken and Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said at the time that they returned safely.
But obviously there hasn’t been much improvement on the wrist since then. Antetokounmpo did not join his brothers as scheduled for the All-Star Skills Challenge on Saturday night in Utah – he was replaced by Bucks teammate and fellow All-Star Jrue Holiday.
And he played just 20 seconds in his team’s win over Team LeBron in the All-Star Game on Sunday night, getting a dunk on first possession, then taking a foul and heading to the bench to basically become coach for the rest of the night.
“Day to day, try to get healthy,” Antetokounmpo said after the game. “You know, obviously I had the incident three days ago. I don’t think it’s smart in any way, you know, to play a lot of minutes in the All-Star Game. At the end of the day, obviously you want to participate, you want to run up and down, joke around, do dunks, create work. But at the end of the day, I think you also have to be mature.
He gave no indication that the wrist problem is more serious than a sprain.
“Hopefully I can, you know, be available for my team when they need me,” Antetokounmpo said.
Milwaukee has the second-best record in the NBA after the All-Star break at 41-17, a half game behind Boston in the Eastern Conference.
Antetokounmpo is third in the NBA with 31.8 points per game, behind only Dallas’ Luka Doncic (33.3) and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (33.1).
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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