There was some doubt surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo’s availability for Thursday night’s showdown between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic. This is after the 29-year-old was listed as questionable to play due to a right midfoot sprain.
Giannis and the Bucks decided that he would play through the injury against Orlando, though, which resulted in Milwaukee securing a 118-114 victory over their opponents at the Fiserv Forum.
As soon as the game tipped off, Giannis made everybody forget that there was even any doubt regarding his injury status. Antetokounmpo scored 13 of his game-high 37 points in the opening period on 6-of-10 shooting. The former back-to-back MVP looked as explosive as ever, thereby erasing any question marks about his health.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” he said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Obviously I get a lot of easy ones sometimes in transition before they get set. But I was just trying to make something happen. There was a couple times I was able to go downhill, a couple times I was able to kick for the three – one from Khris, one from Dame, one from Brook. I’m just trying to play basketball in the best way possible.”
According to Giannis, it wasn’t his intention to hit the ground running. This just came naturally, and he gladly obliged.
“Look, I didn’t start the game knowing in my mind I’m just going to sprint up and down eight times and be out of breath in the first two minutes,” he continued. “That wasn’t my goal. But, that’s how the game was played. I was able to get some deflections, go the other way, try to go downhill.”
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