Bulls keep up with Milwaukee, dropping close one against the Grizzlies

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Not that Billy Donovan was still searching for meaning in these final eight games of the 2025-26 campaign, but just in case he didn’t have to look very far on Saturday.

First and foremost, the Bulls coach still holds winning games and competing as priority 1A and 1B, and then there’s what happened earlier in the day up in Milwaukee. Hours before the Bulls fell to the Grizzlies 125-124 when Collin Sexton’s attempted game-winner came after the final horn sounded, Milwaukee was run out of their own building by San Antonio.

That meant the Bulls could have jumped them in the standings and lost a draft lottery spot to their division rivals, but it was not meant to be.

Trailing by just a point with four seconds left, Tre Jones got his hands on the inbound pass, dribbled up the court, and when he saw resistance, made the dish to Sexton. The veteran guard got the shot off, but just not in time.

“When Collin got it he had to kind of knife his way through, so he had to hold it a little bit, so I think in hindsight, if Tre was looking back on it he’s thinking he should have shot it, but I thought both of them were trying to make the right play,” Donovan said.

A tough lesson learned in a season of tough lessons.

But beyond the team concept to catch Donovan’s eye, there are still individual performances, both good and bad. Matas Buzelis definitely provided the good, finishing with 29 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks, giving him his eighth game of the season with at least 20-plus points and three blocks. Only Spurs standout Victor Wembanyama has done it more (22 games).

Not that Buzelis’ performance came as a surprise. He was not happy with seeing the Bulls (29-45) officially eliminated on Friday, and vowed he wasn’t just going to lie down with a few weeks left.

“Just keep fighting man,” Buzelis said of his mindset. “You don’t want to go out quitting. You have to finish, you have to finish what you started. We’ll come back stronger than ever (next year). I’m going to work really hard this summer, but you keep battling.

“I’m playing to win.”

It would have been nice if that attitude somehow started to rub off on Patrick Williams, who was again more enigma than anything else against Memphis. With the Bulls completely short-handed in the frontcourt, this had Williams’ name on it as a game in which he can start to establish something in a season of disappointment.

Instead, he was basically outplayed by seldom-used rookie Lachlan Olbrich.

Not exactly what Donovan was hoping for. The coach was asked if it felt like Williams had just resided to the fact that he is what he is as a player and didn’t care about reaching a once high ceiling, and responded,

“The two guys that can move the needle for us the most on the offensive glass are Matas and Patrick,” Donovan said. “And I talked to Patrick about this in terms of his offensive rebounding numbers – and not necessarily coming down with the ball – but his relentless go-rate to the glass every time has got to be better. Since we talked it has been better. We have to keep staying with that part of it.”

And that’s seemingly the issue with Williams. It’s Year 6 and he still needs to be reminded of the basics.

“I think he’s a very good team guy,” Donovan said. “He’s not one of those guys that’s going to be upset or mad. Like does he want to play 35 minutes a night? Yeah, but he’s not going to do it in a way where he’s disruptive to the group and drawing attention to himself. That’s definitely not who he is.”