Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo forced out of Game 1 vs. Heat due to new back injury

During this Sunday’s playoff clash between the Bucks and the Heat, Giannis Antetokounmpo drove towards the basket and collided with Mike Love, only to take a hard fall right on his lower back. Suddenly, all of Milwaukee’s ambitions of winning the NBA championship were paralyzed, as the player couldn’t find the strength to get up from the floor. 

As his plunge came in the first quarter, Giannis finally left for the locker room until the second quarter and couldn’t impact the game. The top-seeded Bucks lost 130 to 117 to Miami in the Conference playoff opener.

Take a look at the actions last night in Wisconsin’s Fiserv Forum and judge it yourselves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmI7SqVaeAc

“There was an X-ray that was clear here,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ll monitor him and see how he does, see how he wakes up, how he feels the rest of tonight and tomorrow.”

All of Milwaukee is expecting the two-time MVP to feel better in the following days, especially considering that Game 2 of the series will also be a home game this next Wednesday April 19.

“We have to wait and see what the doctors say, most importantly what Giannis says,” Budenholzer said. “Certainly we’ve been blessed with him being resilient and quick to heal, but you’ve just got to take it day by day, see how he’s doing and see how he feels.”

While the foward took at least a whole minute to get up from the floor after his hard fall with 4:13 left in the first quarter, he remained in the game starting by taking his free throw as the officials called it a foul from Miami’s Love. Almost three minutes later, he recieved yet another strong foul and was placed in the bench.

His coach decided to put him in the match once again with 9:56 left in the second quarter, but he only lasted a minute on court before getting officially removed from the match. By then, Antetokounmpo had scored six points and 3 rebounds in over 11 minutes of play.

“Didn’t look comfortable, confident,” Budenholzer said. “It felt like the right thing (to keep him out).”

Heat had their own injury concerns as Tyler Herro broke his right hand

Late in the second quarter, Tyler Herro broke his right hand while diving for a loose ball. Not only did the player have to leave the court immediately, it is now being reported that he will be out 4-6 weeks.

Check out the play as the former Sixth Man of the Year injured his right hand:

Tyler Herro broke his right hand on this play in the 2nd quarter.

He will not return. pic.twitter.com/4uAQxVcJN8

— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) April 16, 2023

The Miami player left the playoff opener with a stat-line of 12 points on 5-9 shooting from the field. The Heat came into this game as the obvious underdog coming as the 8th seed, but now without their third best scorer their series just got a lot more difficult.

The former All-Rookie Team member was going through another well-rounded campaign, with very similar numbers to last season as he’s currently averaging 20.1 points, 5.4 total rebounds, and 4.2 assists per contest. One of his best assets so far had been shooting from beyond the arc, averaging a three-point shooting percentage of 37.8.

Herro also finished with a career-best 115 offensive rating and showed many signs of improvement throughout this 2022/23 tournament.