Milwaukee Bucks: Eric Bledsoe sidelined with fractured fibula

The Milwaukee Bucks were dealt a significant blow as they will be without point guard Eric Bledsoe for the following couple of weeks after he suffered a right fibula avulsion fracture.

As they keep piling wins after wins, the Milwaukee Bucks will officially be without one of their key contributors for the next couple of weeks.

Following the Bucks’ 125-108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers Saturday night, the team announced that point guard Eric Bledsoe suffered a right fibula avulsion fracture following a MRI and exam taken earlier in the day.

Bledsoe suffered the injury the previous night midway through the Bucks’ comeback win over the Memphis Grizzlies where he ran into and clashed legs with teammate Wesley Matthews after both players were set to scrap for a loose ball.

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The incident put Bledsoe out of commission from that point on in the game and he left the court with what the Bucks initially deemed as a right shin contusion.

After being listed as out for Saturday night’s game, the 30-year-old was in street clothes for the Bucks’ win over the Cavs before his injury was officially announced late in the night.

This marks the second injury that Bledsoe has dealt with this 2019-20 season as he initially suffered a fracture in his rib cartilage during the Bucks’ undefeated preseason. That didn’t force Bledsoe into missing the start of the season or any games up until Saturday night, but his play did suffer over the Bucks’ first couple of weeks into the campaign.

Of course, this won’t be the first stretch where the Bucks have been without a crucial contributor as they have endured through the losses of Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, and even Giannis Antetokounmpo over this winning streak, along with other rest-related absences.

However, the Bucks are about to gear up for an incredibly competitive slate that is filled with a few marquee matchups, all of which starts Monday night when they host the Dallas Mavericks at Fiserv Forum. That stretches into the Bucks’ contests with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Indiana Pacers, where former Bucks player Malcolm Brogdon will make his return to Milwaukee, and the Bucks’ Christmas Day matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers.

And with the point guard position being the thinnest spot on the Bucks’ depth chart, the Bucks will have to rely more on their focal points in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, as well as veteran George Hill to take on bigger minutes off the bench. We’ll likely see two-way player Frank Mason up with the Bucks as well, and his days allotted as part of his two-way contract will start to be a bigger topic of conversation, especially ahead of next month’s two-way guarantee deadline.

Despite Bledsoe’s setback, the Bucks are playing incredibly confidently and loose just right before some of their more high-profile matchups this season. And in the words of Antetokounmpo as relayed by Ben Steele of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel following Saturday night’s win, they will be relying on the culture they’ve built to maintain their winning ways now without one of the integral pieces in Bledsoe:

"“We got to wish Bled a fast recovery,” Antetokounmpo said. “Come back healthy and this team is going to be exactly how it is now when he gets back.“We did it (when) Khris missed a lot of games. We were able to win games without him. We got to to it without Bled. If I ever miss games, they got to it without me. We built a winning culture around the team and everybody knows what they got to do when we step on the floor.”"

Now we’ll just have to see how the Bucks fare against some incredibly tough tests and hope for a full and speedy recovery for Bledsoe.