The latest Chicago Bulls news after a mistake-prone loss to the Dallas Mavericks, including an upcoming Josh Giddey "revenge" matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Turnovers put an end to Bulls winning streak
Chicago's 120-119 loss to the Mavericks last night was the team's first in 10 days. Before that, the last "L" the Bulls put on the board came on March 19, a 127-121 defeat to the Phoenix Suns. Given the highlights of the recent four-game winning streak—a near quadruple-double, a half-court buzzer-beater, consecutive Player of the Week awards among them—that seems like a month ago.
But an old friend caught up with the Bulls as they committed 19 turnovers in the loss to Dallas. The stars of the last four games, Giddey and Coby White, led Chicago with six apiece.
Even cutting that number to 15 (still too many) could've meant a season-long five-game win streak instead of a loss that dropped the Bulls further away from the No. 8 seed in the East and an easier path to the playoffs.
A miraculous hangover?
After the excitement of Thursday's win over the Lakers in which the Bulls scored eight points in nine seconds and won on Giddey's half-court heave, a letdown would've been understandable.
Veteran center Nikola Vucevic admitted that could've been at least part of the issue against the Mavs, per Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune:
"I just don’t think we had the same energy, the same focus. I don’t know if it had to do with the (Lakers) game. We did talk about it — putting the prior one behind us and focusing on tonight. We just didn’t have the same spark."Bulls center Nikola Vucevic
Chicago will have to flip the switch and move on. The next team on the schedule is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have the best record in the league.
A revenge game for Josh Giddey?
Giddey spent his first three NBA seasons with the Thunder. He was eventually forced out of the rotation last postseason while that team made a run to the Western Conference semifinals. Opposing defenses sagged off the then-21-year-old, who never developed an outside shot during his time in OKC, and hunted him on the other end with his lack of defensive ability.
The Bulls acquired him in exchange for Alex Caruso last summer, and it seemed like another questionable move by Chicago's front office until Giddey suddenly found a three-point stroke, cut mid-range floaters out of his game in favor of drives to the rim and developed into one of the league's best players over the last month.
Now, he'll have the chance to show those adjustments to the team that cut his minutes, put him on the bench and sent him packing less than a year ago.