{"id":422776,"date":"2026-01-21T03:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422776\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:28:08","slug":"bulls-hopeful-josh-giddey-returns-thursday-after-11-game-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422776\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls hopeful Josh Giddey returns Thursday after 11-game absence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan 20, 2026, 07:43 PM ET<\/p>\n<p>CHICAGO &#8212; Guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4871145\/josh-giddey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Giddey<\/a> is just about ready to return to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/chi\/chicago-bulls\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Bulls<\/a>&#8216; lineup after being sidelined the past three weeks because of a strained left hamstring, coach Billy Donovan said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Donovan, speaking before the game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/lac\/la-clippers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LA Clippers<\/a>, said that Giddey could return at Minnesota on Thursday. The Australian missed his 11th game in a row.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Feels pretty good,&#8221; Donovan said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s just waiting to hear from the medical of what they want to do and how Josh feels. But everything that I&#8217;ve gotten from Josh in medical is that there were no setbacks and he&#8217;s doing well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/47191162\/nba-buzz-latest-live-updates-trades-intel-league\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/r1586603_683x683_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/47613037\/2026-nba-regular-midseason-grades-all-30-teams\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/r1601616_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>Giddey has not played since a loss to New Orleans on Dec. 31. He walked off the court gingerly in the first minute of the second half in that game.<\/p>\n<p>Giddey has performed at an All-Star level in his second season in Chicago since a trade from Oklahoma City. He is averaging a team-high 19.2 points, 8.9 rebounds and nine assists, and has seven triple-doubles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know what the cutoff point is in terms of missed games and things like that, but before he got hurt, I think you could certainly make the argument he was playing at that level for strong consideration,&#8221; Donovan said.<\/p>\n<p>The Bulls were ninth in the Eastern Conference at 20-22 entering Tuesday&#8217;s game. Forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4431687\/patrick-williams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patrick Williams<\/a> sat out because of a sprained right ankle and is day-to-day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 20, 2026, 07:43 PM ET CHICAGO &#8212; Guard Josh Giddey is just about ready to return to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-422776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}