As far as Bulls guard Josh Giddey was concerned, it wasn’t a fluke.
When the Bulls opened the season 5-0, it wasn’t because they were playing bully against teams such as the Wizards and Nets. No, they had a season-opening victory against the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons and beat playoff-caliber teams such as the Magic, Hawks and Knicks.
There was something there in late October — months ago that feel like years, especially in the wake of an embarrassing 136-96 loss Friday to the Knicks.
‘‘I’ve said this before, but I really think we started off the season the right way,’’ Giddey said. ‘‘We were building momentum with the group we had, and then obviously at the deadline things changed.’’
Maybe. But things had changed before that, thanks to injuries, inconsistent defense and more mediocrity from a group that had toiled in mediocrity for too long. The front office had to make changes, which were long overdue.
With only five games left in the season, however, Giddey wasn’t done trying to search for something positive. As bad as the season has gone, there is still something worth salvaging, he said.
‘‘We blew up half our team, and we kind of went from building momentum with the guys we had to, like, a minicamp at midseason, trying to get guys acclimated to what we’re doing,’’ Giddey said. ‘‘So, yeah, it was challenging. It was challenging for everybody. It’s not like it was just me or one other guy. Everybody had to go through it. The front office makes the decisions they make, and it’s our job to play and go out there and win games. We haven’t done that nearly even close to a high-enough level.
‘‘But it’s about finishing the right way and doing the right things, staying with it. At the end of the day, it’s the NBA, and we don’t take that for granted. We need to finish this off the right way, regardless of playoffs or not.’’
The ‘‘right way’’ at this point would be the Bulls navigating the final stretch by using Giddey — and the other known pieces — in games in whi
