Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo leaves game early vs. Cavaliers due to a left groin strain

CLEVELAND (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo could be sidelined for a while after he left the second quarter of Monday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers due to a left groin strain.

Coach Doc Rivers didn’t have any further update on Antetokounmpo after the Bucks 118-106 loss, and said the next step would be imaging on his left groin.

“We won’t know anything until tomorrow. It didn’t look great, I can tell you that,” Rivers said.

Antetokounmpo had 14 points, five rebounds and four assists in 13 minutes. He immediately went to the locker room with 3:03 remaining in the second quarter after committing a foul and did not return.

Rivers said he thinks the injury occurred before that point in the game.

“He grabbed his groin, I think in the first quarter, and I asked him right away. He said it was fine. Then I think he grabbed it again and said it was fine. And then on the third time, you know, that’s when it happened. But I think it happened before, in my opinion,” Rivers said.

The 14-year veteran leads the Eastern Conference and is fourth in the league in scoring at 31.2 points per game. He was listed as probable on the injury report before Monday’s game due to left knee patellar tendinopathy.

Milwaukee started the season 4-1, but has dropped six of 10. It went 1-3 during its latest stretch of four games in six days.

The Bucks have a couple days off before their next game on Thursday against Philadelphia.

“We’ve got some work to do,” Rivers said. “There’s always a silver lining. I don’t know what it is. It doesn’t look good right now. But we’re going to either find somebody or find something to run that will pay dividends later, and that’s the situation we’re about to go through.”

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