Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso will undergo surgery early next week for a fractured right wrist, the team announced Saturday.
Caruso suffered the injury during the Bulls loss to the Bucks on Friday night in Milwaukee. Caruso was fouled hard by the Bucks’ Grayson Allen, who was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game.
Caruso will miss six to eight weeks, the team announced.
Caruso went up for a layup on a fast break with 5:45 remaining in the third quarter, but Allen hooked Caruso’s right arm, turning Caruso in the air and sending him hard to the floor on his right wrist. Caruso said his wrist was “a little banged up” after the game, but X-rays came back negative at that time.
Caruso’s agent, Greg Lawrence, called the foul by Allen a “cheap shot” in a statement to ESPN on Saturday.
“I expect the league will take into consideration not only what was a dangerous, unnecessary, and dirty play on Alex Caruso that caused this significant injury, but also the offending players’ own history,” said Lawrence. “This was a cheap shot on an airborne, defenseless player that resulted in a broken bone that will need to be surgically repaired and will cause Alex to miss at least two months of the season.
“I am hopeful the league levels a punishment that will send a clear message that there is no place in the NBA for what happened to Alex and the Bulls.”
Sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that a decision on possible league punishment for Allen has yet to be decided. The NBA does take into consideration any injury suffered by the offended player.
Caruso expressed his frustration with Allen’s antics after Friday’s game.
“Dude just grabbed me out of the air,” Caruso said after the game. “It’s kind of bulls—. I don’t know what else you can do about it. I’m just glad that I didn’t have any major scary injuries right away.”
Caruso said his wrist continued to bother him in the second half, especially while shooting. He finished 1-of-6 from the field for 3 points in the second half, but said he did not think the injury would linger long-term.
He added that Allen did not come to check on him following the play.
The foul particularly irked Bulls coach Billy Donovan, who is normally mild-mannered and rarely singles out players. But following Friday’s game, Donovan called Allen’s actions dangerous and cited his history while playing college basketball at Duke as he called on the NBA to consider further discipline toward Allen.
“For Alex to be in the air and for [Allen] to take him down like that, he could’ve ended his career,” Donovan said. “He has a history of this. That to me was really — it was really dangerous. I hope the league takes a hard look at something like that because that could have really, really seriously hurt him.”
Friday was the first time this season Allen has been called for a flagrant foul and only the second time in his NBA career. He was also ejected from a Summer League game in 2019 for picking up two flagrant fouls within seconds of each other. Allen is in his first season in Milwaukee, but the Bucks have continued to defend his character following Friday’s game.
“It’s something I’ve spent some of the day thinking about and I’m going to visit with Grayson for a lot of reasons, more to just check in on him and see how he’s doing,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I can just go on Grayson since he’s been here and really since he’s been in the league, I think he’s been great for us. He’s competitive. He does a lot of things that are about winning. Our locker room loves him. I love him.
“Competition is tough and there is things that happen in the games that are unfortunate. I know that Caruso is going to miss some time and I feel for him. I don’t want that for any of our opponents, for anybody. But there’s nothing that was done intentional and Grayson’s been nothing but great for us. The way the guys feel about him, that’s how you know the most is how the locker room feels about you.
“It’s an unfortunate part of competition and I hope that the Bulls and he can be back and whole and healthy as soon as possible and look forward to competing against him again.”
Caruso becomes the latest Bulls player sidelined by injuries in recent weeks. Zach LaVine is out until at least early next week with a left knee injury. Lonzo Ball is scheduled to undergo knee surgery next week that will sideline him for six to eight weeks. Javonte Green (groin) and Derrick Jones Jr. (knee) are still recovering from their respective injuries.
Source: www.espn.com