Bulls coach Billy Donovan might have found himself a catchphrase worthy of a T-shirt.
University of Minnesota football coach P.J. Fleck has ‘‘Row the boat’’ as his mantra, and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin made ‘‘The standard is the standard’’ famous.
What’s Donovan selling his players?
‘‘Swim to it!’’
Angry about his team basically feeling sorry for itself after an 0-2 start, Donovan was discussing that very topic in a Zoom meeting with the media before the game Sunday against the Warriors when he fired off this gem: ‘‘The bottom line is, as they get further and further beaten down, they have to be responsible for their own rescue. If someone throws a life raft out there, you have to actually swim to it. You can’t say, ‘Bring it to me.’ ’’
On Sunday, the Bulls finally stopped feeling sorry for themselves, popped the water wings off and swam to it. The problem was, even the life raft was taking on water.
It appeared Donovan would earn his first victory with the Bulls after Zach LaVine made a jumper to put them ahead by two points with five seconds left. But the Warriors’ Damion Lee snatched that away by sinking a three-pointer with 2.3 seconds left for a 129-128 victory.
Just like that, the best game the Bulls have played under Donovan mattered little, with their record dropping to 0-3.
‘‘This is going to be a process for these guys,’’ Donovan said afterward. ‘‘At this level, it’s so hard to win, and there’s some suffering probably in that locker room, including the coaches, too, because we want to help them as much as we can. But when it gets that painful, that’s when I think it becomes that important.’’
Donovan went on to say his players could walk out of the United Center with their heads up. That would be a first this season, considering the embarrassing way the Bulls were blown out in their first two games.
As far as Donovan was concerned, the takeaway was that the Bulls finally responded to adversity and didn’t panic. Problem was, it still wasn’t enough.
Each time the Bulls would stretch their lead to a comfortable margin in the fourth quarter, the Warriors made it uncomfortable.
Stephen Curry (36 points) was a big reason why. He put a cold shooting night behind him and made a huge layup and free throw with 46 seconds left to pull the Warriors to 126-124.
A tip-in by Kevon Looney tied the score with 16.9 seconds left, setting the stage for the dramatic finish that didn’t go the Bulls’ way.
Lost in the defeat was how well the starting unit played, especially on offense. LaVine had 33 points, Lauri Markkanen 23 points before leaving the game late with a bruised calf, Wendell Carter Jr. 22 points and 13 rebounds and Coby White 20 points and five assists.
It was a difficult loss to swallow, and the Bulls now head on the road for games Tuesday and Thursday against the Wizards in Washington.
‘‘I think we should have started that way from Game 1, but I guess you gotta go through some trials and tribulations to get where you’re going,’’ LaVine said when asked about a moral victory. ‘‘I don’t think anyone cares if we played better. Opponents are going to come in and try and beat us, so we’ve got to be ready from the get-go, like we were [Sunday].’’
