MILWAUKEE — Giannis Antetokounmpo drove to the basket and took a hard fall.
And just like that, the championship aspirations of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks got quite a bit more precarious.
Antetokounmpo landed hard on his backside after getting fouled in the first quarter and left the Bucks’ Eastern Conference playoff opener for good early in the second quarter Sunday. Milwaukee lost 130-117 to the Miami Heat.
“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.”
Game 2 of the series is Wednesday in Milwaukee, and the Bucks will hope the two-time MVP is feeling better by then.
“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.”
Antetokounmpo got up slowly but remained in the game to take his free throws after getting fouled by Miami’s Kevin Love with 4 minutes, 13 seconds left in the first quarter. He stayed in the game until picking up his second foul about 2 1/2 minutes later.
After getting removed from the game, Antetokounmpo went to the locker room. He returned with 9:56 left in the second quarter but exited again with 8:33 left in the half and didn’t return.
“Didn’t look comfortable, confident,” Budenholzer said. “It felt like the right thing (to keep him out).”
Antetokounmpo had six points and three rebounds in 11 minutes.
The Heat had their own injury concerns: Miami’s Tyler Herro broke his right hand late in the second quarter.
