The Chicago Bulls suffered a significant blow to their hopes of potentially landing the top seed in the Eastern Conference on Friday night when, late in a four-point loss to the Bucks, Alex Caruso slammed to the floor on a Flagrant 2 foul from Grayson Allen and suffered a broken wrist.
Caruso, who called it a “bullsh*t” play from Allen, will miss 6-8 weeks due to surgery on his wrist and that will force the Bulls to play without their best point-of-attack defender for the better part of two months. In a crowded Eastern Conference, where Chicago is just a half-game back of the No. 1 seed but only three games up on the No. 7 seed, Caruso’s absence could be quite costly in terms of the seeding hunt. Many in Chicago were upset about the play, understandably so, and plenty have brought up Allen’s history of questionable to dirty play going back to his days at Duke.
The league took its time reviewing the play, and on Sunday decided that Allen would be additionally suspended for one game for the foul, as the way he wrapped up Caruso’s arms and threw him down in a vulnerable position was deemed egregious enough to warrant further punishment.
The following has just been announced: pic.twitter.com/sXl5g83Q4J
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 23, 2022
The league’s release states that the suspension is for “unnecessary and excessive contact” that caused “substantial injury,” indicating that Caruso getting hurt made the NBA feel it deserved further punishment. That means Allen will miss Chicago’s upcoming game in Cleveland on Wednesday. After that, both teams will look to move on from the incident, but when Milwaukee visits Chicago on March 4, you can be assured that Allen will hear it from the Bulls crowd.