MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is bracing to miss several weeks after suffering a right calf injury in the closing seconds of his team’s 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
“Probably the next steps will be, go to (an) MRI tomorrow. After the MRI, they’ll tell me, probably, I popped something in my calf, in my soleus, something. They’ll probably give me a protocol of four to six weeks that I’ll be out,” Antetokounmpo said after the game. “This is from my experience being around the NBA.”
It was apparent Antetokounmpo’s right leg was bothering him since the first quarter. Still, the nine-time All-NBA forward chose to play through the injury, though his mobility and explosiveness were limited.
After trailing by 23 points early in the fourth quarter, the Bucks rallied, with Antetokounmpo scoring 14 of his 22 points in the final period. With less than a minute remaining, the Bucks cut the deficit to 5.
On the next possession, Antetokounmpo jumped twice to contest a shot and grab a rebound. When he pushed off his right foot to run the floor, he pulled up lame, limped past half court, then grabbed at his right calf while slowly heading to the Bucks’ bench. At that point, Bucks coach Doc Rivers did not allow Antetokounmpo to return to the floor.
“I thought he was favoring it for most of the second half, personally,” Rivers said. “I asked our team five different times. I didn’t like what my eyes were seeing, personally. Giannis was defiant about staying in.”
“On that (last) play, you could see him trying to run down the floor. To me, I had had enough. I didn’t ask. I just took him out. He actually wanted to go back in. That was a no for me.”
Thanasis consoling Giannis after a non-contact injury 🫂❤️🩹
Giannis returned to the bench after suffering an apparent injury in the fourth, but wasn’t able to re-enter the game pic.twitter.com/p0yDd0Ldjt
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 24, 2026
Antetokounmpo began walking back to the locker room before returning to the Bucks’ bench to watch the end of the game. Milwaukee came up short when Kyle Kuzma missed a heave from just inside the half-court line as the buzzer sounded.
“It wasn’t for my teammates, it was for myself,” Antetokounmpo said when asked whether he had played through the injury to set an example. “I just don’t like to quit. I feel like I couldn’t explode. I could jog. I couldn’t get on my toes, so I was kind of jogging on my heel the majority of the game.
“I didn’t have the same explosiveness, but I still feel like I would help. But then at the end, when it popped, I had to get out. I couldn’t walk.”
The Bucks have lost six of their last eight games and are 18-26 this season. They remain in 11th place in the East and are 2 1/2 games behind the 10th-place Atlanta Hawks (22-25).
When asked whether the Bucks’ place in the standings played a role in his decision to continue playing, Antetokounmpo confirmed he would not have taken the same risk if the team had a “significantly” better record.
“I’ll say, I don’t (know) if this is smart or not smart, but I’ll just say my competitive spirit,” Antetokounmpo said. “Obviously, I was feeling it a majority of the game, but I did not want to stop playing. But at the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop.”
“I’m gonna work my butt off to come back.”
Giannis has an idea of what his MRI results on his calf injury will be. pic.twitter.com/vY8LziQYuz
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) January 24, 2026
Though Antetokounmpo’s injury will overshadow the result, this was another poor effort from the Bucks, who have stacked up those types of losses recently. As questions about Antetokounmpo’s long-term future in Milwaukee have intensified, the Bucks have lost five of their last six games, including defeats by the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder in which the Bucks trailed by at least 25 points at one point in the game. On Wednesday, Antetokounmpo called out his teammates for being “selfish” and questioned his team’s chemistry.
“We’re not playing hard, not doing the right things,” Antetokounmpo said after the Bucks’ loss to the Thunder. “We’re not playing to win. Not playing together. Our chemistry’s not there. Guys are being selfish. Guys are trying to look for their own shots instead of looking for the right shot for the team. Guys trying to do it on their own. At times, I feel like when we’re down 10, down 15, down 30, we try to make it up in one play. It is not gonna work. We just gotta keep on chipping away, possession by possession.”
Denver, the Bucks’ opponent Friday, was on the second night of a back-to-back. Five of its six most important players — Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Cameron Johnson — did not play because of injury. The sixth, Aaron Gordon, didn’t play in the second half after reinjuring his hamstring just before halftime.
It didn’t matter. Denver surged ahead in the third quarter, took a 23-point lead with 10:33 left and held on for the win.
“We were 12-for-40 from the 3 tonight, and 30 of them were wide open,” Rivers said. … “Sometimes you play hard and still lose a game. But let’s not start making stuff up about (playing with) no energy, because I disagree with that.”
With Antetokounmpo expecting to miss four to six weeks with his latest injury, the Bucks find themselves in a difficult position. Milwaukee went 3-11 in the 14 games Antetokounmpo missed with a left adductor strain and a right soleus strain earlier this season. An extended absence could push the Bucks fully out of the playoff picture.
It could also encourage Milwaukee to take a different route in the lead-up to this season’s trade deadline. Before Antetokounmpo’s injury, Bucks general manager Jon Horst had been aggressively seeking additions to play alongside his superstar. Though the Bucks don’t have control of their first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, they will receive the lesser of their pick and the New Orleans Pelicans’ selection (which they traded to the Atlanta Hawks). With the Pelicans second in the current lottery odds, the Bucks could lose enough games to put themselves in position for a top-five pick no matter which of the two teams ends up higher.
For his part, however, Antetokounmpo plans on recovering to play again this season and help the Bucks make a run.
“I’m gonna work my butt off to come back. That will probably be (the) end of February, beginning of March. Hopefully, the team, we’re in a place where we can at least make the Play-In or make the playoffs,” Antetokounmpo said.