There will come a point this season when Bulls coach Billy Donovan finally pulls back on the chase for ‘‘competitive integrity’’ and no longer will be concerned about trying to squeeze out victories.
Mark it down for about 10 p.m. April 12.
That’s about the time the Bulls will have played their final game of the regular season in Dallas and are loading up for the plane ride home.
Forget about it happening before that.
Donovan made that clear again Sunday. Even after the Bulls fell to the Knicks 105-99 for their ninth consecutive loss, their longest skid since January 2019, he wasn’t going to change his stance about competitiveness over development.
‘‘From a locker-room standpoint and going in there every single day as professionals that take their job seriously, to go in there and say, ‘Listen, guys, we’re not even trying,’ or, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this, this and this,’ I have not gotten that,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘So he’s not available to play [right now], but let’s see how Jaden [Ivey] can help the group. Or how Rob [Dillingham] can help the group. But our intention is to go out there and try and win every single night. It’s been a challenge from the standpoint of trying to get all these guys on the same page.’’
There is a method to Donovan’s madness, however.
While it became obvious the Bulls didn’t have the horsepower to keep up with the Knicks, especially late, Donovan’s feeling is that force-feeding the idea of staying competitive — undermanned or not — is allowing development to happen. That specifically goes for forward Matas Buzelis.
‘‘It’s been a lot harder on Matas, but I think in a good way,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘When Coby [White] was here and Ayo [Dosunmu] was here and ‘Vooch’ [Nikola Vucevic] was here, even though [Buzelis] got into the starting lineup, he’s now starting to see the best defenders in the league night in and night out. I think that’s a great opportunity for him to make a jump because he’s starting to learn a lot.
‘‘The consistency of being able to perform at a really high level against really good defenders and good players is something he’s kind of gotten thrust into, and I do think that because of his makeup and competitiveness, how much he leans into that, that could really help him.’’
Maybe it will someday soon, but it didn’t help late against the Knicks. While Buzelis finished with 15 points, he had two good looks on three-pointers with the game in reach and just more than two minutes left. He missed both.
And while this latest loss didn’t feature the kind of meltdown the Bulls endured in the third quarter 24 hours earlier against the Pistons, it was another reminder of why the Knicks are competing for a top-four playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and the Bulls (24-34) are doing what they can to improve their lottery odds.
The culprit was a familiar one. Turnovers gave the Knicks an opportunity to take control of the game in the third quarter, opening a 13-point lead. The Bulls turned the ball over seven times in the quarter.
To their credit, however, the Bulls came back and made a game of it. But the result still wasn’t good enough.
‘‘We’ve got to find ways to be way more competitive,’’ said guard Josh Giddey, who shot 2-for-10 from the field and scored six points. ‘‘It starts with that first unit. We’ve got to set the tone. But we’ve got to find ways, one through 15, to get this thing on the right track.’’