Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury casts a dark cloud over Bucks’ win against

MILWAUKEE — Until 3:40 remaining in the third quarter of Tuesday’s game against the Boston Celtics, things were going well for the Milwaukee Bucks. In the middle of a four-game losing streak, the Bucks were up 15 points on the NBA’s only 60-win team..

Then disaster struck.

Without making contact with another player, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo crumpled to the floor while running up the court and immediately grabbed the lower half of his left leg.

After sitting for a short period with teammates and a trainer surrounding him, Antetokounmpo put weight on the leg and then put an arm around the shoulders of teammates Brook Lopez and Thanasis Antetokounmpo to be helped off the floor. Eventually, Antetokounmpo walked back to the Bucks’ locker room under his own power.

During the fourth quarter of Milwaukee’s 104-91 victory, the Bucks announced Antetokounmpo had suffered a strain in his left soleus, which is a muscle in the calf. After the game, Bucks coach Doc Rivers told reporters that Antetokounmpo was undergoing further testing after the game for both his left calf, as well as his left Achilles tendon.

“They’re testing him for the calf, which is obviously an MRI,” Rivers said. “They’ll check them both, yeah.”

While Rivers confirmed further testing, he did say that it had not yet been completed and Antetokounmpo had just left the arena to have the imaging done.

Bucks point guard Damian Lillard, who was bringing the ball up to start an offensive possession, was the closest player to Antetokounmpo on the play when he saw Antetokounmpo go down.

“Anytime you see one of your teammates go down, it’s a real level of concern,” Lillard said. “We spend a lot of time around each other, more than we would our family, so I think that was the number one thing. And then for it to be your best player, the most important part of our team, at this point in the season, it was like an “Oh s—” moment, especially because there was nobody else around.

“And I was right next to him. So I just saw, like, kind of his facial expression, like his reaction. So, obviously, I got scared. I knew we were going to call timeout, so I just dribbled up to half court, and when he stood up, I could tell he wanted to try to put weight on it. And I saw him put some weight on him and it was like, I guess the reaction of him doing that is what made him kind of almost go back down. But I saw him put weight on it. So I was like, ‘All right. It seems stronger than what I was thinking.’

“And to see him just be able to even walk off on his own, I think that showed me a lot. And so obviously, that was encouraging to see. And now you just want him to get healthy.”

Rivers agreed with Lillard that there is real concern about Antetokounmpo’s health moving forward, especially with the NBA playoffs starting on Apr. 20.

“High, I would say that,” Rivers said of his level of concern. “But he’s Giannis. I think everyone probably feels the same…