Antetokounmpo's return from injury not enough to stop Bucks' 7- game skid, NBA Cup elimination

NEW YORK (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo's return to the court was not enough for the Milwaukee Bucks to stop their longest losing streak since his rookie season.

Restricted to 28 minutes after missing four games with a groin strain, Antetokounmpo had 30 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists Friday night, but the Bucks were eliminated from the NBA Cup with their 118-109 loss to the Knicks.

“I felt good,” Antetkounmpo said. “I felt powerful. A little bit out of shape. Obviously I haven’t played with the team at all.”

It was Milwaukee’s seventh straight loss. It is the Bucks’ longest skid since dropping eight in a row March 11-24, 2014, when Milwaukee won 15 games after selecting Antetkounmpo in the 2013 draft.

“It’s business man,” he said. “We just got to have that business mentality. At the end of the day, we can talk all we want, make speeches. At the end of the day, we got to show up on the court 48 minutes. We got to do what it takes to win. We got to do the little things."

Antetkounmpo had several strong drives to the rim and made 10 of 14 shots, but also committed a critical foul after the Bucks cut an 11-point deficit to two in the fourth quarter. After his dunk got the Bucks within 104-102 with 5:19 left, Antetkounmpo fouled Jalen Brunson on a 3-point try.

Brunson made all three free throws and the Bucks never threatened again.

Antetokounmpo strained his left groin during Milwaukee’s 118-106 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Nov. 17. Although he was diagnosed with a mild strain, Antetokounmpo said it felt like a pop in his groin when the injury initially occurred.

Antetokounmpo is averaging 31 points, 11.1 rebounds and 6.9 assists. He scored 14 points in 13 minutes before getting injured.

The Bucks are 0-5 this season when Antetokounmpo does not play. He traveled with the team to Miami on Wednesday, when the Bucks were handed a 106-103 loss.

Antetokounmpo was named the MVP of the in-season tournament last year, when the Bucks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder to claim the title after losing to the Indiana Pacers in the semifinals in 2023-24.

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Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) dunks the ball over New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges during the second half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo reacts during the second half of an NBA Cup basketball game against the New York Knicks, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo looks to pass while being defended by New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) during the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives past New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges (25) during the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo tries to get past Los Angeles Lakers' Deandre Ayton during the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives against Cleveland Cavaliers' Jarrett Allen during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Cleveland, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)