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Tim BontempsESPN
SALT LAKE CITY — Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo will travel to New York on Monday to undergo further testing on his injured right wrist, sources told ESPN.
Antetokounmpo, who captained Team Giannis to a 184-175 victory against Team LeBron in Sunday night’s All-Star Game, played 20 seconds to begin the game before exiting with the wrist injury he suffered in Thursday’s win in Chicago when he tried to block a shot by Bulls guard Coby White in the second quarter.
Wearing a wrap on his right wrist, Antetokounmpo participated in the first live player draft for the All-Star Game alongside LeBron James (who also wound up leaving the game early because of a hand injury). Then, after starting the game, Antetokounmpo caught the ball on the baseline, laid the ball in the basket, committed an intentional foul and checked out with 11 minutes, 40 seconds to go in the first quarter.
He was replaced by Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, with Bucks teammate Jrue Holiday taking his place to begin the second half.
“Taking it day by day, try to get healthy,” Antetokounmpo said when asked after the game about his level of concern about his wrist. “You know, obviously I had the incident three days ago. I don’t think it’s smart in any way to … play a lot of minutes in the All-Star Game.
“At the end of the day, obviously, you want to participate, you want to run up and down, joke around, have some dunks, create some work. But at the end of the day, I feel you also have to be mature. Hard decision, but mature decision to kind of … take a break here, take care of it, and hopefully I can be available for my team when they need me.”
Antetokounmpo previously was supposed to take part in the skills challenge on Saturday night with his brothers, Thanasis and Alex, but Holiday took his place there as well.
Averaging 31.8 points, 12.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists across 47 games for the Bucks this season, Antetokounmpo is currently one of the favorites to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, which would be the third of his career.
Milwaukee entered the All-Star break having won 12 consecutive games, and currently sits a half-game behind the Boston Celtics for the NBA’s best record.