The Milwaukee Bucks won’t have the services of Thanasis Antetokounmpo for one game. The NBA released a statement on Saturday afternoon announcing its punishment for an incident between Antetokounmpo and Boston Celtics big man Blake Griffin earlier this week in which the two got tangled up with one another and Antetokounmpo hit Griffin with a headbutt.
Unsurprisingly, the NBA wasn’t an especially big fan of that, and as a result, Antetokounmpo will now miss the Bucks’ game on Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers in Milwaukee.
The following was released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/RH2mH1b3nc
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 1, 2023
Prior to the headbutt, Griffin got a flagrant foul while Antetokounmpo was attempting to finish near the basket. Things boiled over with 1:25 left in the game the the Celtics holding a 136-92 lead over the current leaders in the Eastern Conference. It ended up being an important win for Boston in its uphill battle to take the 1-seed away from the Bucks before the regular season comes to an end — as of this writing, Milwaukee has a 1.5 game lead on the Celtics. The former has five more games left to play before the regular season comes to an end, while the latter only has four.
Antetokounmpo has played a small role off the bench for the Bucks this year, as he has accrued 138 minutes of work across 33 games.