Is Giannis Antetokounmpo Playing? Full Bucks vs Bulls Injury Report Revealed

Ricardo Klein | 7 Hours Ago

Dec 20, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives to the basket against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the first quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Milwaukee Bucks will look to head into their mini-Christmas break on a winning streak as they will take on their division rivals, the Chicago Bulls, on Monday.

The Bucks rebounded big time on Saturday in their win over the lowly Washington Wizards after they suffered their worst loss of the season on Friday to the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. Milwaukee will now shift its attention to the Bulls on the road. The Bucks will look to move up four games above .500 on Monday; however, they could be without their top player, superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo was listed as questionable prior to Monday's game due to a back issue. He will now be out for this game.

Injury Update from the Bucks:

Giannis Antetokounmpo, AJ Johnson (Non-Covid Illness), Damian Lillard (Non-Covid Illness) and Chris Livingston are out for tonight’s game at Chicago.

Khris Middleton is available. https://t.co/FllYPyf4Yt

— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) December 23, 2024

Antetokounmpo will miss his second consecutive game after he was held out of Saturday's win over Washington due to back spasms. With the superstar now sidelined, Bobby Portis will likely draw another start, with Taurean Prince seeing an uptick in playing time.

Antetokounmpo was unable to play on Saturday, the second night of a back-to-back. The last time we saw him, he was fantastic, recording 33 points on 13-for-22 shooting from the field, 14 rebounds, three assists, and three steals in 30 minutes of action.

Unfortunately, the Bucks were blown out in that contest, as the Cavaliers were too much to handle. If the Bucks were to play Monday's contest without Antetokounmpo, they would be without their best player, who is having an MVP-like season so far, averaging 32.7 points per game, 11.6 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.5 blocks while shooting 61 percent from the field and 22 percent from three, albeit he is only attempting 0.8 threes per game which is a significant drop since his last MVP season in the 2019-20 season where he averaged 4.7 threes a game.

Antetokounmpo has only missed three games thus far.

The Bucks are 4-4 against division opponents, and Milwaukee is 5-7 against opponents over .500. So far this season, the Bucks are shooting 48.2 percent from the field, 0.4 percent higher than the 47.8 percent the Bulls' opponents have shot.

Milwaukee has been on a tear in their last 10 games, averaging 112.2 points, 41.0 rebounds, 25.8 assists, 8.0 steals, and 5.2 blocks per game while shooting 48.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 110.3 points. The Bucks are 7-3 in their last 10 games.

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