By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
From three stitches to deal with a cut in his right hand to a triple-double in a winning effort, Giannis Antetokounmpo had a busy night on Monday.
“I feel great,” mentioned the Freak, “I got some stitches in my finger. I told my wife, she’s still with me. She still likes me. We won the game. Good day.”
In the buildup to the meeting with the Toronto Raptors in Scotiabank Arena, he was listed as probable with right patella tendinopathy.
“My finger’s kind of numb but I’m fine,” Giannis updated his status following the latest setback en route to a clash with the San Antonio Spurs in Fiserf Forum on Wednesday, “I played the second half but I’m fine. Just stitches. I’m not going to overthink about it.”
The Milwaukee Bucks prevailed, 128-104, and improved to 18-16 in the 2024-25 NBA Regular Season. Lasting nearly 29 minutes, the Greek international star paired 11 points with 13 assists and 12 rebounds.
“I think Scottie [Barnes] did a good job on him one-on-one, but our close-outs were not good. Every time we were supposed to rotate and close-out to the three-point line to break the rhythm and to take away threes, we did not do a good enough job of that,” the Serbian head coach of the Raptors Darko Rajakovic described the team effort to contain Giannis.
Austrian Jakob Poeltl, the starting center of the hosts, finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, one block, one steal, and one assist.