NBA: Chicago Bulls’ Alex Caruso to have surgery for broken wrist after Grayson Allen tackle

Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso will have surgery next week to repair his broken right wrist after he was taken down by Grayson Allen during the third quarter of Friday night’s 94-90 loss at Milwaukee.

The team said Caruso will be re-evaluated in six to eight weeks. It’s another tough blow for Chicago (28-16) after it announced Thursday that guard Lonzo Ball needs arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

Caruso, who turns 28 on Feb. 28, is averaging 8.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 28 games in his first season with Chicago.

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Caruso was driving to the basket Friday night when a hard foul from Allen caused him to land on his right side. Caruso lay on the floor for a few minutes, though he stayed in the game to attempt the free throws that resulted from Allen’s flagrant 2 foul.

“For Alex to be in the air like that, and for (Allen) to take him down like that, it could have ended (Caruso’s) career,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said after the loss. “And (Allen) has a history of this. That to me was really, it was really dangerous. And I really hope the league takes a hard look at something like that because (Allen) could have really, really seriously hurt him.”

Caruso said after the game that his wrist was “a little banged up” and that he’d have to see how it feels in the next couple of days.

“The dude just grabbed me out of the air,” Caruso said.

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Allen served a one-game suspension during the 2016-17 season while at Duke after tripping an opposing player for the third time in a calendar year. He was ejected from an NBA Summer League game in 2019 after committing two flagrant fouls.

The Bucks acquired Allen from the Memphis Grizzlies in the offseason. He spent two seasons at Memphis after playing his rookie season with the Utah Jazz.

The play was originally ruled a common shooting foul, but it was upgraded to a flagrant 2 after a replay review. The flagrant 2 resulted in an automatic ejection.