Giannis Antetokounmpo maximized his limited return in win over Hawks

At long last, Giannis Antetokounmpo finally made his long-awaited return to action Thursday night.

Antetokounmpo’s return certainly sparked the Milwaukee Bucks with their 120-109 win over the Atlanta Hawks, which served as their third straight victory and improved their record to 35-20 on the season.

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After previously missing the Bucks’ last six games due to left knee soreness, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer confirmed before the game that Antetokounmpo would be on a minutes restriction as he works his way back into game shape from being sidelined.

And as evidenced by his stat line, Antetokounmpo made the most of his capped minutes. The Greek superstar finished with 15 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field (1-for-2 from three), five rebounds, three steals, a pair of assists, a block and a turnover in nearly 25 minutes of burn.

Even in the considerable time the Bucks were without their superstar last night, they bandied together to hold off a surging a Hawks team. Whether that Jrue Holiday was shutting down the Hawks’ engine, that being Trae Young, or the fact that the Bucks had seven players in double figures, it was a job well done for the rising Bucks.

Giannis Antetokounmpo returned from the longest absence of his career

Of course, Antetokounmpo’s absence and the mystery surrounding when he would make his eventual return likely made some Bucks fans very anxious about the state of his knee. The sudden changes to his status on daily injury reports or the limited details coming from Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer only made one wonder whether his knee was the cause of a larger concern.

Those concerns certainly won’t get away, especially as the Bucks face quite the gauntlet to finish out the last month in their regular season and going into their eventual playoff run. Still, it was a sight for sore eyes seeing Antetokounmpo back on the floor and doing what he does best.

After the game, Antetokounmpo discussed the longest absence of his career and his overall mentality of being out of action for that stretch, which comes courtesy of the Bucks’ video team:

"“You get mentally frustrated, but at the end of the day, you don’t lose your positivity. Everything happens for a reason and I know that I’m coming back healthy, stronger and sometimes it’s good to take a break…Obviously, (this season) is challenging. You see a lot of players getting injured, a lot of players missing games. We play every other day, but we gotta do what we got to do. Everybody does it and we can’t be the ones whining about it, but it’s just a challenging season. You play back-to-backs and you have one day to rest and go out and play again. You have one day to rest and you go out and play again. It’s a lot of games. So you got to be able to take care of your body and hopefully, when this year is done, we can get back to normal.”"

The Bucks haven’t been strangers to dealing with the unique and unusual rigors that come with playing this 2020-21 season amid the coronavirus pandemic and the looming threat of injury. And having always practiced caution when it comes to Antetokounmpo and his overall durability, the Bucks’ medical staff wasn’t going to shy away from doing exactly that as Antetokounmpo suffered what he described as a sharp pain in his knee.

Getting back on the floor was a good first step for Antetokounmpo and being able to get back into the groove he was in prior to his absence will be the next hurdle to tackle. But the Bucks will continue to oversee Antetokounmpo’s health and overall status in order to get his peak performance when it matters most in the playoffs.