LOS ANGELES — The minutes started dwindling in Game 1.
But the issues were masked with a win.
By Game 4 of the Western Conference second-round playoff series between the Mavericks and Thunder, however, Josh Giddey saw the writing on the wall.
Then-Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and, to a certain extent, Kyrie Irving were hunting down Giddey when they had the ball in their hands. Whether they wanted him in pick-and-roll or isolation, it didn’t matter. They had found the hole in the Thunder’s defense and looked to expose it as long as Giddey was on the court.
“That’s not a feeling you want to have,” Giddey said earlier this season.
And it came at a cost.
Giddey lost his starting job for the last two games — both won by the Mavs — and had become expendable.
News broke on June 20 that he had been traded by the team that selected him No. 6 overall in the 2021 draft to the Bulls for Alex Caruso.
Fast-forward to Saturday night in L.A. Doncic — now a Laker — realized things have changed. Giddey was no longer the hunted.
Leading into the Bulls-Lakers game, Giddey was told that he would be guarding Doncic. Was Bulls coach Billy Donovan going crazy or simply acknowledging that Giddey has made defensive strides and wanted to instill even more confidence in him?
Crazy like a fox.
Doncic was scoring at a high rate in that first half — 29 points — but he also was turning the ball over and allowing the Bulls to play to their identity in transition and build a slight lead. Solid film study by Giddey played a huge role because he knew Doncic would put him in pick-and-roll and was well aware of his tendencies to attack the rim, find the pocket or kick it out to the corner.
That’s why Giddey had four steals.
And with six minutes left in the third quarter and Giddey up to six steals, Doncic became so frustrated that he threw an elbow into Giddey’s chest and was hit with a technical. That didn’t stop Giddey from talking to Doncic, doing whatever he could to frustrate him.
“I will tell you that Josh is very competitive, and he’s tough,” Donovan said. “He’ll stand his ground, and I think he plays with a real good edge to him.”
That edge left Giddey only two steals short of a historic quadruple-double.
“I don’t know if it was at me or the officials, whatever it was, but I was trying to do what I could to slow him down,” Giddey said of the incident. “I enjoyed the matchup. Experience like that is going to make you better, and obviously on that side of the ball, I want to keep getting better, so whether it’s trying to frustrate a guy or whatever it is. It was a lot of fun.”
And in some ways, not so much revenge but definitely retribution for last year.
“I think a lot of defense is just how hard you want to try at it,” Giddey said. “It sounds kind of corny, but it really is the truth. He gave me 30 in the first half, so it wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but these experiences can only make you better as a defender.
“I was the guy [Doncic] would bring up to try to go at [in that playoff series], so things have changed a little bit since then.”
