Bucks Injury Report: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard Status Revealed vs Pelicans

Ahead of a matchup against the 21-58 New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night, the 45-34 Milwaukee Bucks were dealt some ominous injury news.

The Bucks have been on a tear of late, despite being without nine-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard for the better part of a month.

Milwaukee has won its last five straight and clinched its ninth consecutive playoff berth. The team is still very much jockeying for playoff positioning with just three contests left in its regular season.

The Pelicans, meanwhile, want to lose as many games as possible down the season's home stretch. The team could conceivably catch up to at least the 19-61 Charlotte Hornets in its push for the most lottery balls ahead of this summer's 2025 NBA Draft.

According to Eric Nehm of The Athletic, the Bucks could be without both of their two best players in Thursday's matchup.

Lillard remains out with his right calf blood clot, while backup center Jericho Sims has been on the shelf for weeks with an ailment of his own, a right thumb UCL sprain.

Two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, meanwhile, was considered probable to play through a left shoulder tendinopathy ahead of the contest.

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Now that he's played 65 games, the 6-foot-11 superstar is eligible to be named to his ninth consecutive All-NBA squad, so he doesn't really need to suit up for any of these final three contests if he's having lingering injury issues prior to the playoffs.

Antetokounmpo has missed multiple games across each of the last two postseasons. Having him as healthy as possible next week is essentially to the Bucks winning their first playoff series since 2022.

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The nine-time All-Star big man's status has officially been revealed for the matchup.

Per Nehm, Antetokounmpo and Connaughton will now suit up against New Orleans.

The Bucks and Detroit Pistons are very much still in a fight for the Eastern Conference's No. 5 seed. Milwaukee has a two-game advantage over Detroit as of this writing, but the outcomes of this Pelicans tilt, the New York Knicks' primetime matchup against the Detroit Pistons, and the Indiana Pacers' matchup with the mighty Cleveland Cavaliers could have major ripple effects on the Bucks' playoff future.

If the Knicks beat Detroit, the Bucks win against New Orleans, and the Pacers upset Cleveland (a likely second-round matchup for the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds, which are currently the Pacers and Bucks), Milwaukee will secure the fifth seed in the playoffs.

The Bucks fell to the Pacers in six games last spring, but Milwaukee was without Antetokounmpo for the entirety of that series, while Lillard also sat out two games and was playing through injury even when he was available.

This season, Antetokounmpo has been averaging 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 6.4 assists a night.

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