Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo sustains injury vs. Cavaliers

Antetokounmpo appeared to suffer the injury on a drive to the basket, according to Nehm, who tweets that the Greek forward hobbled back down the court on defense, committed a foul, and then checked himself out of the game and walked to the locker room. Harris Stavrou of SPORT24 has a partial video of the incident (X link).

Backup big man Jericho Sims started the second half with Antetokounmpo unavailable, Nehm adds (via X).

A two-time MVP who has finished no worse than fourth in voting for the award in each of the past seven years, Antetokounmpo was off to arguably the best start of his decorated career in 2025/26 before the injury, averaging 32.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 1.3 blocks through 12 games (33.4 minutes per contest).

The 30-year-old entered Monday’s game on the injury report with a probable tag due to an unrelated issue with his left knee (patellar tendinopathy) before being upgraded to available. Head coach Doc Rivers said last week that the injury isn’t considered serious.

While it’s unclear how much time Antetokounmpo will miss as a result of the groin injury, it’s probably not a great sign that it was quickly diagnosed as a strain. Even relatively mild groin strains often cause multi-week absences and are notoriously difficult to recover from.

Sims and Bobby Portis are the most obvious candidates for more minutes with Antetokounmpo out for an undetermined amount of time. Myles Turner figures to take on an expanded offensive role as well.