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Milwaukee Bucks: Nikola Mirotic reportedly suffers fractured left thumb, to miss time

By Jordan Treske

MILWAUKEE, WI -MARCH 18: Nikola Mirotic #41 of the Milwaukee Bucks poses for a portrait on March 18, 2019 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WI -MARCH 18: Nikola Mirotic #41 of the Milwaukee Bucks poses for a portrait on March 18, 2019 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Milwaukee Bucks forward Nikola Mirotic suffered a fractured thumb during their victory over the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night.

The hits just keep on coming and coming for Milwaukee Bucks as it relates to their collective health at this point in the season.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, new Bucks forward Nikola Mirotic suffered a slight fracture in his left thumb during the team’s 115-101 win over the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum.

As Charania noted, Mirotic’s timetable for a return is as early as two weeks and as late as four, which would slot him into returning midway through the Bucks’ first round series in the playoffs, should it come to that.

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The cause of Mirotic’s injury came midway through the third quarter when he got rookie Lakers big man Moritz Wagner to bite on a pump fake from behind the three-point line.

Mirotic tried to play through it after getting his left thumb wrapped up after a trip to the locker room, but was seen in some discomfort on the Fox Sports Wisconsin broadcast during a team timeout and took another trip to the locker room, which ended his efficient 23-point performance.

Of course, this is just the latest significant injury the Bucks have suffered in the last few days, the other being the plantar fascia tear that Malcolm Brogdon suffered over the weekend, something that will reportedly keep him out for six-to-eight weeks.

Combine that with the nagging injuries to the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Sterling Brown, Donte DiVincenzo, Pau Gasol and the Bucks are quite shorthanded as they head into the second night of a back-to-back with their meeting against the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night.

With roughly three weeks left to go in the regular season and their pursuit to close down not only the best record in the Eastern Conference but a shot to hold home court advantage throughout the entire playoffs, this spate of injuries surely throws a wrench in how the Bucks would ideally like to close out their best campaign in nearly three decades.

That only makes head coach Mike Budenholzer’s job that much harder to keep the team’s eyes on the prize, but to do so while managing the workload of his players, especially those currently dinged with their respective ailments.

It goes without saying that the Bucks’ injury luck is running pretty low at this point and it’s understandable why Bucks fans may be nervously sweating out the end of the regular season with the amount of injuries piling up, at a fast and furious rate at that.

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The Bucks are certainly built to withstand injury absences with the amount of adequate depth they’ve amassed over the year, but fingers crossed that it doesn’t continue to be tested in the following few weeks.

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