![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/12a752b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4407x2938+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F63%2F0e%2F241c78aa4daf93d6985e2d135ca7%2Fbulls-hornets-basketball-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Guard Josh Giddey <\/b>missed his second game in the last five days with a sore right wrist.<\/p>\n
He played in the Bulls\u2019 victory Wednesday against the Heat, but the medical staff made the decision to rest him Friday against the Wizards, considering where the team was in the seedings.<\/p>\n
Questions about Giddey\u2019s defense, however, won\u2019t be put to rest.<\/p>\n
He has made huge strides in the regular season, but in the playoffs last season with the Thunder, he was exposed by the Mavericks.<\/p>\n
The goal is to demonstrate that those days are well behind him, and he has shown the physicality at 6-8 and the will to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably where I\u2019ve got to be in an advantage as a defender because some guys are just naturally quick and explosive laterally, and I didn\u2019t get blessed with those gifts, so I\u2019ve just got to find other ways to be an impactful defender,\u201d Giddey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also matchup-dependent. If I\u2019m matched up with a bigger guy, I\u2019ve got to be more physical with them, but with quicker guards, I try to give myself a bit more room to keep them in front of me. Being physical, and not just on the ball, hitting cutters, block-outs, there are a number of ways physicality can be involved in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Billy Donovan <\/b>is embracing all of it, especially Giddey\u2019s mindset.<\/p>\n
The hope is always that NBA players understand the importance of defense from Year 1, but sometimes it doesn\u2019t work out that way. Donovan didn\u2019t know it for sure but guessed that because the Thunder had so many other elite defenders, they were able to hide Giddey on lesser offensive threats.<\/p>\n
Giddey admitted as much.<\/p>\n
With the way the Bulls are constructed, there is no hiding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith our team, [Giddey has] had to take a Brandon Ingram<\/b>, had to take bigger forwards at times,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cThere\u2019s times he\u2019s had to handle guys that are really good off the dribble, as well. He\u2019s had to figure that out. I think that was a major problem early in the year.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018We didn\u2019t have the luxury of \u2018take him and hide him on somebody.\u2019 And everybody has to guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the one thing I\u2019ve been impressed with on Coby<\/b> [White<\/b>]. We don\u2019t have one guy that is a defensive stopper. A lot of times we have guys that have to guard their position. Matas<\/b> [Buzelis<\/b>] has gone through that. As a rookie, we\u2019re not trying to hide him, either. I think that\u2019s good for their growth and development. That\u2019s been a stronger commitment from Josh, where they were targeting him, they were putting him in actions, they were trying to attack him. It gets to a point where a player has to make a stand or shut that off a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ticking clock<\/b><\/p>\n
The Bulls won\u2019t rule out guard Tre Jones<\/b> (sprained left foot) for the season, but Donovan said Friday that he\u2019s still in a walking boot.<\/p>\n
He can take it off and do some rehab, but he needs to be completely pain-free, then go through a ramp-up period to get his conditioning back.<\/p>\n
With only one regular-season game left, a return doesn\u2019t look promising for the free agent-to-be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Giddey, who missed the game Friday against the Wizards with a sore right wrist, knows that his defensive improvement will be tested next week in the Play-In Tournament and feels good about having physicality on his side as the equalizer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":52416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n