Bulls proving rebuilds aren’t supposed to look pretty or be pain-free

It’s supposed to be painful.

On some nights – like Wednesday against Toronto – it can even border on embarrassing.

That’s what NBA rebuilds are. There has to be a demolition before a rise.

If there was one criticism to be made about the Bulls’ version of this, however, is it’s two seasons too late. But make no mistake, with 12 games left in the regular season, the rebuild has been flexing its muscles the last 48 hours. On Wednesday, it was a 30-point loss to the Raptors in which there was very little compete from start to finish. A night later against Cleveland, there was a frenzied fourth-quarter comeback that included a 26-8 run to start the final stanza after the Bulls were down as much as 29 points in the game.

Both very different in feel, but both losses.

The major difference was there was fight in the 115-110 loss in the second game of the back-to-back.

The Bulls had a chance to tie the game several times with just over a minute left, but Tre Jones missed a corner three-pointer, Matas Buzelis missed a two-point putback off the miss, and then Leonard Miller messed up a drive off another offensive rebound.

James Harden has never been one to shy away from a regular-season moment and showed off that star power with 32 seconds left, hitting an 18-footer. No problem, as Jones was at the free throw line a few seconds later but split the pair.

Down four with 18 seconds left, that left the Bulls no choice but to play the foul game. Like Jones did, Harden split the pair, at least giving the Bulls (28-42) a glimmer of hope. Hope got up and left with 11 seconds left, though, about the same time Matas Buzelis clanked a three-point attempt off the front of the rim.

Guerschon Yabusele did score on an uncontested layup to pull the home team to within three, but Dennis Schroder iced the game from the stripe.

“These guys have been great to work with,” Donovan said of the comeback. “They really care, they really want to do well, but we get down tool much. We’ve got to get tougher when things aren’t going our way. They were encouraging each other to just stay with it and we’re going to have to continue to do that.”

The loss left the Bulls still in the No. 9 seed of the lottery, but again did little to separate them with a Milwaukee team also in a tanking mood.

Josh Giddey did continue putting his name in the record books, handing out 19 assists to record the most by a Bulls player since Ennis Whatley had 21 on Feb. 23, 1985. Jones led the Bulls with 20 points, while Harden finished with a game-high 36.

Either way this season ends, however, Donovan was once again asked about the direction the organization is really headed and if he needed clarity from the front office or ownership at some point soon.

“We’ll do the same thing we’ve always done, kind of sit down at the end of the year,” Donovan said. “We’ve always done that, (executive vice president of basketball operations) Arturas (Karnisovas) and I and (general manager) Marc (Eversley). Obviously, we talk every day about the team. Clearly the biggest thing we’ve gone through is the injuries since the trade deadline, but just trying to get these new guys together, playing together, that’s really where all the focus has been.

“Certainly, there are guys on expiring contracts, there are restricted contracts, so there will probably be a lot of decisions to make, but we really haven’t talked about those decisions at this point. Going forward we will.”