Josh Giddey admitted he is set to play through a wrist injury after the Chicago Bulls crumbled to a historic 135-92 loss to the Toronto Raptors in Thursday’s season-opener.
Watch an average of 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week of the NBA regular season plus the best of the NBA Playoffs LIVE with ESPN on Kayo Sports | Get Kayo now >
The game represented the start of a new era for the Bulls, who held a firesale at last year’s trade deadline and went into this season building around Giddey, Matas Buzelis and rookie Caleb Wilson.
Instead, it was a reality check on just how far the Bulls have to go in their rebuild and now it sounds like it may also be hard to get a read on Giddey’s place in Chicago’s future plans.
While Giddey had long been viewed as the Bulls’ likely long-term point guard, this season was going to be crucial in determining whether he was the right fit alongside Wilson and Buzelis.
Early signs from Thursday were not promising, but Giddey’s struggles made more sense when he revealed post-game that he suffered a wrist injury in the pre-season that he is playing through.
Giddey told local media he got an MRI on the injury and it is something he is going to manage.
Giddey showed flashes and even connected with Wilson on a few occasions, while the Giddey-Jalen Smith pick-and-roll seemed to be Chicago’s best bet early against Toronto.
But for the most part the Bulls offence looked disconnected and lost for answers against a Raptors defence that may be among the best in the NBA.
Giddey in particular struggled to get into any sort of rhythm as Toronto’s length, physicality and ball pressure caused all kinds of problems for the Australian, who went 1-for-10 from the field.
Giddey did have six assists, bringing up 1,000 dimes in 125 games and becoming the fastest Bulls player to do so in franchise history.
But that was a rare shining light in what was otherwise a dour evening for Giddey, who turned the ball over five times and looked visibly frustrated as he earned a technical foul early in the fourth quarter.
Josh Giddey struggled. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Giddey finished with just two points to go with seven rebounds, six assists and five turnovers and for CHGO Bulls reporter Will Gottlieb, this particular match-up against the Raptors clearly didn’t help.
“I think the challenge was a really tough match-up for him,” Gottlieb said on CHGO Sports.
“But in the first part of the game he turned it over with RJ Barrett guarding him. It’s not Scottie Barnes or Kawhi Leonard. They’re not putting their best defender on him. They’re pressing up and picking him up at half-court or beyond and he just can’t get the ball downhill.
“That’s a challenge for him, using his ball-handling to get into the lane. At the beginning of the game, that wasn’t there.
Lendeborg: ‘Lost all respect for Luka’ | 00:55
“I want to give him credit because I thought him and Tre (Jones) were the two guys that could reliably get into the lane. It didn’t always necessarily turn into anything but they need to be there… and then I thought he was very aggressive on the offensive glass… but I just felt like he was not able to generate the quality of offence that this team really needs from him.
“I think one of two things needs to happen. Either he needs to consistently be able to generate good offence or he needs to be a much better off-ball player and that includes defence.”
For the Raptors, Kawhi Leonard looked the goods on both ends in his comeback game as he scored 23 points to go with four steals while Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes also chipped in 23 points each.
The 43-point loss was Chicago’s largest margin of defeat in franchise history.
DYSON MAKES ‘UNREAL’ STATEMENT AFTER SNUB
Elsewhere, Dyson Daniels was strangely left off ESPN’s Top 100 NBA players list this pre-season.
Well, it’s safe to say the Australian is back on the mainstream media’s radar after a standout performance on both ends helped the Atlanta Hawks to a 132-125 win over the Orlando Magic.
Daniels was an efficient 8-for-13 from the field on his way to 20 points while he also had five steals, four rebounds and three assists in the victory.
With it, he became just the fourth Hawk since at least since 1973-74 to record 20-plus points and five-plus steals in a season-opener.
The first two possessions of the game was everything Hawks fans have come to expect from Daniels, who recorded a quick steal and then hit Jalen Johnson with the lob in transition all in the space of 20 seconds.
Daniels had a pair of missed 3-pointers early in Thursday’s game, but those misses have often distracted from what he can do and the Hawks guard reminded his critics of that by putting up 14 points and four steals in the first 14 minutes alone.
Dyson Daniels had a big game. (Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
That included one play where he picked the pocket of Jase Richardson and quickly took it up the court for the easy layup.
“He is unreal. Look at the concentration,” Hawks play-by-play commentator Bob Rathbun said.
The Hawks even substituted Daniels in for fellow Australian Jock Landale in the final seven seconds of the first quarter for a final defensive stand to end the period.
It was a genius move as Daniels went on to force a turnover, which led to an Aaron Wiggins layup.
Even if the 3-point shot wasn’t there, Daniels was still aggressively getting to and finishing at the rim while also hitting a few nice floaters.
Plus, the Hawks need Daniels to keep taking those shots even if they aren’t falling or risk the defence sagging off him like they did at various stages last season.
Landale also had a strong game for the Hawks off the bench with 10 points and three assists, playing through a whack to the face that left the Boomers big man with a visible mark.
IN OTHER GAMES AROUND THE LEAGUE…
Earlier, Minnesota star Anthony Edwards erupted for 45 points as the Timberwolves spoiled two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Miami Heat debut with a 131-106 triumph.
Edwards, teaming seamlessly with new arrival LaMelo Ball, added 10 rebounds and three assists. He had nine of the Timberwolves’ 21 three-pointers while Ball, who joined from Charlotte this season, drilled five treys on the way to 21 points.
Antetokounmpo, the former Bucks talisman who captured one championship and two Most Valuable Player awards in his 13-year tenure in Milwaukee, looked the part, connecting on 13 of 19 attempts from the floor on the way to 35 points with six rebounds.
But the Heat as a whole — widely tipped as Eastern Conference contenders after landing Antetokounmpo — had no answer for the Timberwolves.
“We’re going to have to step up our defense,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who added Miami’s offense “did not look like us”.
Anthony Edwards. Carmen Mandato/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP
The second night of the new season featured an array of familiar faces in new places.
In Washington, Anthony Davis made his Wizards debut nine months after he was acquired from Dallas in a blockbuster trade and spearheaded a 128-118 victory over the Bucks.
Now recovered from hand and groin injuries, Davis scored 34 points and pulled down 12 rebounds drawing chants of “MVP!” from Wizards fans who suffered through the team’s league-worst 17-65 campaign last season and saw top draft pick AJ Dybantsa suffer an ankle injury in the team’s pre-season finale.
Trae Young, who was also acquired by Washington last season but played just five games for them because of injury, added 20 points and 13 assists in the Wizards’ first season-opening win since 2022.
Tyler Herro, acquired in the trade that sent Antetokounmpo to Miami, led the Bucks with 24 points and Jaime Jaquez Jr., who arrived in the same deal, added 22.
Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton, playing his first game since he tore his right Achilles tendon in game seven of the 2025 NBA Finals, scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and added 12 assists as the Pacers edged the Pelicans 123-120 in New Orleans.
Haliburton, who put the Pacers ahead for good with a driving basket with 1:23 to play, was overcome with emotion in an on-court postgame interview.
“It means a lot to be back out here,” he said, wiping away tears.
Dallas guard Kyrie Irving, playing his first game in more than 19 months after recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, scored 15 points for the Mavericks in a 128-110 loss to the Houston Rockets — who had 30 points apiece from Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr.
— with AFP