{"id":941703,"date":"2026-10-22T05:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941703\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T05:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:44:11","slug":"kawhi-leonard-scores-23-points-in-toronto-return-as-raptors-rout-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941703\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard scores 23 points in Toronto return as Raptors rout Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO — Kawhi Leonard<\/a> scored 23 points in his return to Toronto, Scottie Barnes<\/a> and Immanuel Quickley<\/a> also had 23 apiece and the Raptors routed the Chicago Bulls<\/a> 135-92 on Wednesday night in the season opener for both teams.<\/p>\n

RJ Barrett<\/a> added 20 points and Ja\u2019Kobe Walter had 10 for the Raptors, who never trailed.<\/p>\n

Leonard shot 5 for 17, including 2 of 6 from 3-point range, but went 11 for 11 at the free-throw line. The two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year had four of Toronto\u2019s 15 steals before checking out with 8:12 remaining in the final quarter.<\/p>\n

The Bulls committed 27 turnovers, leading to 35 points for the Raptors. Chicago rookie Caleb Wilson<\/a> had nine turnovers in his NBA debut.<\/p>\n

Toronto scored almost as many points in the first quarter (43) as the Bulls had in the opening half (44).<\/p>\n

Matas Buzelis<\/a> scored 17 points for the Bulls and Wilson had 16. Norman Powell<\/a> and Jaylin Smith each added 15.<\/p>\n

Wilson shot 7 for 21 and went 1 for 8 from long distance.<\/p>\n

The Bulls combined to shoot 4 for 36 from 3-point range. Powell, who went 2 of 6, was the only Chicago player to make more than one.<\/p>\n

Leonard connected for a 3 on his first shot, then missed his next eight attempts before hitting a pull-up jumper late in the second.<\/p>\n

Leonard was traded from San Antonio to Toronto before the 2018-19 season. He helped the Raptors win the NBA championship that season before signing with the LA Clippers.<\/p>\n

Toronto reacquired Leonard in an offseason trade after a salary cap-circumvention scandal that led to massive sanctions against the Clippers.<\/p>\n

Former NBA star Serge Ibaka<\/a>, Leonard\u2019s teammate on that 2019 Raptors championship team, watched from a courtside seat opposite the Toronto bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — Kawhi Leonard scored 23 points in his return to Toronto, Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,108667,75910,3302,96661],"class_list":["post-941703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-bulls-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-4","tag-kawhi-leonard-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-512591","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-28"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941703","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=941703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}