It wasn\u2019t a fluke as far as Josh Giddey was concerned.<\/p>\n
When the Bulls jumped out of the gate with a 5-0 record to start off the 2025-26 regular-season campaign, it wasn\u2019t playing bully against the likes of the Washingtons and Brooklyns. No, it was a season-opening win over now Eastern Conference-leading Detroit, as well as beating playoff-caliber teams like Orlando, Atlanta, and New York.<\/p>\n
There was something there back in late October. Months ago that might as well feel like years, especially in the wake of Friday\u2019s embarrassing 136-96 loss to the Knicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said this before, but I really think we started off the season the right way,\u201d Giddey said. \u201cWe were building momentum with the group we had, and then obviously at the deadline things changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe. But things changed before that. Injuries, inconsistent defense, more mediocrity from a group that toiled in mediocrity for too long.<\/p>\n
Changes had to be made by the front office, and actually they were long overdue. With just five games left, however, Giddey wasn\u2019t done trying to search for something positive. As bad as the year has gone, in Giddey\u2019s mind there is still something worth salvaging.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe blew up half our team and we kind of went from building momentum with the guys we had to like a mini-camp midseason, trying to get guys acclimated to what we\u2019re doing, so yeah, it was challenging,\u201d Giddey said. \u201cIt was challenging for everybody. It\u2019s not like it was just me or one other guy. Everybody had to go through it. The front office makes the decisions they make and it\u2019s our job to play and go out there and win games. We haven\u2019t done that nearly even close to a high enough level.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s about finishing the right way and doing the right things, staying with it. At the end of the day it\u2019s the NBA and we don\u2019t take that for granted. We need to finish this off the right way, regardless of playoffs or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cright way\u201d at this point would be the Bulls navigating the final stretch by using Giddey \u2013 and the other known pieces \u2013 in games where there is an obvious talent disadvantage, and then against the likes of fellow tankers such as Washington and Dallas, call that a good night to rest the hamstring.<\/p>\n
Giddey missed the Wednesday game against the Pacers but was back at it against New York on Friday. Not exactly an ideal matchup to come back for.<\/p>\n
Knicks big man Mitchell Robinson scored the first basket of the game 45 seconds in, and who would have guessed that actually would have been enough to keep New York in front until midway through the first quarter if the home team wouldn\u2019t have scored another point.<\/p>\n
A Matas Buzelis free throw was all the Bulls (29-48) could muster until Collin Sexton hit a three-pointer with 5:25 left in the opening stanza. By that point the damage was done and Giddey and the Bulls were down 20-4.<\/p>\n
A close game compared to what was coming.<\/p>\n
By the end of the first half, the Knicks had the largest halftime lead in franchise history, up 37 points and getting very little resistance.<\/p>\n
They hit 30-of-51 (.59%) from the field and outrebounded the Bulls 31-18.<\/p>\n
How bad was it for Giddey and his teammates? At one point midway through the second quarter they had more turnovers than field goals and still finished the half with 14 field goals to 11 turnovers. New York turned the ball over twice.<\/p>\n
Not exactly finishing \u201cthis off the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sexton led the Bulls with 19, while Giddey struggled in his return, shooting 3-of-12 from the field with four turnovers.<\/p>\n
While there was no defense for that kind of showing, the Bulls are under a darker cloud than Giddey would even admit. Coach Billy Donovan could walk away, while the front office is hanging in limbo.<\/p>\n
And while Giddey was trying to stay optimistic, the inevitable feels like it\u2019s coming for this organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t a fluke as far as Josh Giddey was concerned. When the Bulls jumped out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-697049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116344160680372619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}