Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo out with knee swelling

Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging a career-high 32.4 points this season and has played in 16 of Milwaukee’s first 17 games.

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MIAMI (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo, the league’s leading scorer this season, was unexpectedly held out of the Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA Cup game at the Miami Heat on Tuesday night with left knee swelling.

He had been expected to play until about an hour before the game. The team listed Antetokounmpo as probable with a strained left calf, and then the knee problem apparently flared up.

“I never know,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said, about 90 minutes before halftime and moments after the team said there was a problem with the knee. “Honestly, it’s breaking news to me right now, too.”

Milwaukee does not play again until hosting Washington on Saturday. The NBA — under the player attendance policy that went into effect last season — has a rule that says “unless a team shows an approved reason for a star player not participating in a game,” it must have the star players “for all national television and NBA tournament games during the season.”

Antetokounmpo, a two-time Kia MVP, obviously qualifies as a star player by league definitionand the game in Miami was both nationally televised on TNT and an NBA Cup game. The league fined the Atlanta Hawks $100,000 earlier Tuesday for violating policy by holding Trae Young out of a Nov. 12 Cup game against Boston after an investigation concluded he could have played.

Antetokounmpo — the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, an award he’s won 24 times — not playing against the Heat doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a league investigation. The eight-time All-Star is averaging a career-best 32.4 points on 61% shooting this seasonand he played in 16 of Milwaukee’s first 17 games.

“Listen, the way he plays and the way he works, there’s going to be things like this,” Rivers said. “And when they come, you just deal with them.”