New Bulls guard leads Australia to win over Spain

The Oklahoma City Thunder gave up on Josh Giddey. Maybe they just needed to see him in the Olympics.

Giddey finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in Australia’s 92-80 win over perennial powerhouse Spain. Many of those assists came on pick-and-roll plays with center Jock Landale, who had 20 points. Giddey shot 7-for-12 and 2-for-4 on threes.

That’s the kind of game OKC imagined when they took Giddey with the No. 6 pick in the 2021 draft. But uneven shooting led to Giddey losing his starting spot and eventually getting dealt to the Chicago Bulls for Alex Caruso.

The Bulls should be excited by how Giddey ran the offense and shot the ball Saturday. But Giddey isn’t the only Boomer with something to prove. His fellow 21-year-old Dyson Daniels was the No. 8 pick in the 2022 NBA draft, but the New Orleans Pelicans sent him to the Atlanta Hawks in the Dejounte Murray trade.

Daniels had 13 points and seven rebounds against Spain, shooting 3-for-4 from three-point range. If Daniels, already a strong defender, can continue to knock down shots, the Hawks may have gotten a steal.

Perhaps Daniels and Giddey have extra motivation to impress their new teams, or prove their old teams wrong. If that’s the case, free agent Patty Mills (19 points) is even more motivated.

Though it may simply be that Mills always ups his game when playing for Team Australia. So far that’s been the case for Giddey and Daniels, too.