The latest Chicago Bulls news for Feb. 25 featuring a perfect example of a terrible win, an odd change to the starting lineup and rotation that worked a charm, and it's officially time to say the new Josh Giddey is for real.
When winning a game goes wrong
In nearly all instances, breaking a six-game losing streak with a 32-point win on your home court would be cause for celebration. Not for the Bulls. Not right now.
Heading into a matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers last night, Chicago held a .5 game lead on Philly for 10th in the Eastern Conference standings. A loss would've seen the Bulls slip out of a play-in tournament spot while simultaneously handing the Sixers the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two teams.
It was the most crucial game of Chicago's season, and a 142-110 win was the worst possible outcome.
Now, the Bulls hold a 1.5-game lead over the tanking Brooklyn Nets and are 2.5 games up on Philadelphia, who will likely be without Joel Embiid for the rest of the season and could very well shut down Paul George and call it a year.
It's looking more and more like another play-in berth and early postseason exit for a Chicago team that should be doing all it can to secure the highest 2025 NBA Draft selection possible.
A Bulls weird, injury-riddled rotation works to perfection
Already without centers Jalen Smith (concussion) and Nikola Vucevic (calf, or perhaps "tank"), Chicago also lost Coby White from the starting lineup after the guard cut his finger before tip-off. Lonzo Ball only played one quarter before he left for the locker room with a gashed forehead.
With Ayo Dosunmu also out injured, head coach Billy Donovan was forced to go with a mismatch rotation that heavily featured Kevin Huerter, Dalen Terry, Julian Phillips and Zach Collins. Matas Buzelis led the team in minutes, and Bulls fans finally got to see a taste of the rookie as a small-ball center.
Huerter scored 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting from three. Collins had 19 points, five rebounds, a steal and a block. Terry slid up and down the lineup between guard, forward and even briefly center, playing a season-high 21 minutes while scoring 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting and adding four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.
It was a complete mismatch of players and groupings, but it worked, at least for one night.
This version of Josh Giddey is the new normal
Giddey led the Bulls in scoring with 25 points and rebounding with 16 boards. He also dished out six assists, blocked three shots and hit all three of his three-point attempts.
That brings Giddey's averages to 17.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks on shooting splits of 51/47/85 in his last 15 games. Over his last nine, he's averaging 19.8 ppg and 8.1 rpg while shooting 52.2 percent from deep on 5.1 attempts a night. He's 16-for-16 from the free-throw line in the Bulls' last three contests.
It looked like an aberration at first. Giddey has been a terrible outside shooter and an inefficient scorer for nearly all of his four NBA seasons. But he's been playing this way for over a month and almost a quarter of the season. It's time to begin believing this is the new Josh Giddey.