Bulls drop season finale in New York, turn attention to play-in

Veteran DeMar DeRozan still is looking for that moment from the Bulls.

Maybe it finally will arrive Wednesday, when DeRozan and his teammates host the Hawks in a first-round play-in game.

And maybe that moment will catapult them into something special.

That’s DeRozan’s hope because, at this point, that might be all he has to look forward to with the Bulls. He is facing free agency, and the Bulls’ front office might be forced to make some difficult decisions this summer.

One moment would be nice.

‘‘I mean, being honest with you, we’ve had some lows,’’ DeRozan told reporters after the Bulls’ 120-119 overtime loss Sunday to the Knicks in New York. ‘‘I am not going to give it away of when, but there was a time where things got extremely rough from my part.

‘‘The bond and the closeness we had after that, it meant a lot for us to change over for the season. I don’t look at every negative that happened as a bad thing because, with that, we bounced back from it in a whole different way.’’

The loss to the Knicks was a microcosm of the Bulls’ season. Short-handed and with very little to play for, they competed to the end but came up just short.

DeRozan played 44 minutes — finishing atop the NBA in minutes played this season — and scored 30 points in a game that changed nothing in the scope of things.

While coach Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks were looking to win to secure the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Bulls (39-43) have been locked into playing the Hawks in the No. 9-vs.-No. 10 play-in game for days.

Coach Billy Donovan rested center Nikola Vucevic, guard Alex Caruso and DeRozan on Friday, but he wanted to make sure they kept a rhythm going into the play-in game, so they all played against the Knicks. Vucevic scored 29 points in 42 minutes, and Caruso had 15 points, eight assists and five steals in 41 minutes.

‘‘Obviously, [the Knicks were] playing for something,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I felt like this was a good opportunity for us, and . . . the guys wanted to play and there were a lot of good things we can take away from this game. Having a game like this going into Wednesday will be good for us.’’

Especially if the game is close. The Bulls finished the regular season with 44 clutch games — the third-most in the league — and a league-best 27 victories in those games. Clutch games are defined as games within five points with five minutes left.

After Knicks star Jalen Brunson (40 points) missed a prayer at the end of regulation, he helped his team grab the lead in overtime with two free throws. Donte DiVincenzo then added a three-pointer.

The teams then traded bad possessions with just more than a minute left until Precious Achiuwa grabbed a key offensive rebound and slammed it in to give the Knicks a four-point lead.

Still, there’s a reason DeRozan is up for the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, and he continued to make his case by converting a driving layup while being fouled. After he made the free throw, the Bulls trailed by only one.

But it was another offensive rebound that would haunt them, this time when the Knicks’ Josh Hart came swooping in for a tip-in. Caruso responded with a basket with 14.1 seconds left, but that’s where the score stayed till the end.