CHICAGO — Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 29 points in his return from an eight-game absence on Saturday night, punctuating a 112-103 victory over the Chicago Bulls with a windmill dunk at the final buzzer.
Antetokounmpo’s dunk with two seconds remaining and the game out of reach led to both benches emptying at the end of the game as several Bulls players took exception to his actions. But Milwaukee’s star said after the game he wanted to send a message of urgency to his teammates.
“We’re 11th in the East,” Antetokounmpo said after the win. “Got to keep finding an identity. And if that’s to get a little bit of scrappy at the end, so be it. We’re not champs. Why should we play the clock out and have respect and fair play? We’re fighting for our lives right now.”
Antetokounmpo, who had been out since Dec.3 due to a right calf strain, went 10-of-15 from the field and played 25 minutes as the Bucks aim to ease his way back into action.
Milwaukee went 2-6 in the eight games without Antetokounmpo, and even with Saturday’s victory, the Bucks were still in 11th place in the Eastern Conference with a 13-19 record.
“This is real tough,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’ve been 13 years in the league. If we keep on losing, probably half of the team not going to be here. We’re not going to make the playoffs. “I really don’t care. At the end of the day, I just want to be available, be healthy and help my team win. And if [a windmill dunk] is what has to happen for them to everybody to wake up and understand, we’re fighting for our lives and we got to get our hands dirty, so be it.”
Several Chicago Bulls players took issue with Antetokounmpo’s dunk.
“He shouldn’t have dunked the ball,” Bulls guard Coby White said after the team had a five-game winning streak snapped. “It’s disrespectful to the game. I said, ‘Bro, you’re better than that.’ The game is over with. Why you gotta do that? It’s a respect thing.”
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Antetokounmpo was playing in just his 18th game of the season on Saturday after missing three weeks with an injury he called a soleus strain earlier this month, the same injury that kept him out of the 2024 playoffs. Combined with a groin injury that sidelined him in November, Antetokounmpo said he was happy to just be back on the floor and healthy again.
“It’s something that for 26 days I wasn’t able to do,” he said. “But not just 26 days because prior to that, I had my groin injury, which was 15-17 more days. So it’s probably been a month and a half that I haven’t really actually played the way I wanted. And I’m happy taking it day by day. We have another one in two days. Try to stay healthy, try to be available for my team.”
The Bucks have needed a healthy Antetokounmpo operating on all cylinders to have a chance to win this season. Milwaukee is 10-8 when he plays and 3-11 when he is sidelined.
“Adding a top-75 [all-time] and top one, three or five player in the world to your team, it changes your dynamic entirely,” Bucks forward Bobby Portis said after the game. “Just getting him back into the fold, it kind of made hooping easy for us. Guys in the right spots, you knew where your shots were going to come from. It just made hooping real easy and everybody’s energy was in the right place.”
