Giddey denied call in heartbreaking loss | 00:45
It was a mixed bag for Josh Giddey as the Chicago Bulls’ slump continued at the hands of the Orlando Magic on Tuesday (AEDT).
Meanwhile, Dyson Daniels went toe-to-toe with one of the league’s burgeoning superstars.
Giddey flirted with a triple-double — scoring 22 points with nine rebounds and six assists — but committed a game-worst eight turnovers as Chicago surrendered a fourth-quarter lead.
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The Bulls are now 3-10 over their past 13 games, including four-straight defeats.
Giddey entered play on Tuesday averaging 20.5 points per game on 46.9 per cent from the field and 39.2 per cent from three-point distance.
But it wasn’t a prolific first half offensively for Giddey, who was 1-2 for two points, yet he’d already totalled six rebounds and five assists — though he also committed four turnovers.
The six-foot-eight guard lifted his scoring effort in the second half, including going 3-6 from distance in a continuation of his early-season downtown shooting.
“Confidence; having a good summer goes a long way. I’m shooting the ball better than I ever have in my career,” Giddey said pre-game of his success this season to date.
“A lot of reps in the off-season, I think the three-ball has opened my game up, allowing me to get downhill more.
“Confidence is a big thing. I got that towards the back end of last year, and I feel like it’s flown into this year.”
But the Bulls’ big slide since starting the season a perfect 5-0 can largely be put down to poor defence, and Tuesday’s result was the 12th time in the past 13 games giving up 120-plus points.
“Defence. We’ve given up way too many points … offensively is not the problem for us,” Giddey said.
“Defensively, rebounding … we’ve got to make a stand as a team.
“When we get back to our identity of defending, rebounding, we can get out and run — and that’s when we’re at our best.”
In Detroit, Dyson Daniels went head-to-head with superstar Cade Cunningham as the Pistons snuck home.
Daniels has historically troubled Cunningham, and on Tuesday, the Great Barrier Thief helped limit Detroit’s foremost playmaker to 18 points on 7-15 shooting.
On the offensive end, Daniels took 14 shots as a peripheral playmaker but made just five of them to finish with 10 points.
He did, however, total five assists, four rebounds and four steals.
In the fourth quarter, Daniels made a tough floating shot while drawing a foul to put Atlanta up two points with six minutes remaining, but the Hawks’ comeback attempt ultimately fell short.