Bulls lose on a last-second miss by Zach LaVine, but it wasn’t all bad news

The Bulls needed Lauri Markkanen on Monday night.

Of course, that could be said for just about every game, but this time, the Bulls came oh-so close to upsetting the Spurs, falling 108-107 at the United Center. It was the Bulls’ seventh defeat in their last eight games.

Denzel Valentine will have season-ending ankle surgery Tuesday morning, but there was some good news earlier in the day: Markkanen was cleared by team doctors for full contact in practice.

“Lauri is excited, his teammates are excited and certainly his coaches are excited,’’ coach Fred Hoiberg said.

Markkanen came into training camp with 16 pounds of added muscle and plenty of bravado, anticipating the jump he was expected to make after his impressive rookie season.

All that optimism was suddenly derailed when Markkanen injured his right elbow the first week of camp, forcing the Bulls to change plans on the fly. All this after Hoiberg had spent many summer nights devising new sets to get the ball in Markkanen’s capable hands.

Originally viewed as a six- to eight-week injury, it has reached almost nine weeks, and we’re still counting.

But there’s finally some light peeking through the tunnel.

“Yeah, the plan for Lauri is to have a full-contact practice with no limitations [on Tuesday],’’ Hoiberg said. “It’s going to be a day-by-day situation. If he has soreness, we’ll obviously scale back, but if he keeps making progress, we can keep getting him out on the floor soon.’’

Assuming all goes well for Markkanen, who averaged 15.2 points and 7.5 rebounds and made the All-Rookie first team last season, he would travel with the team to Milwaukee on Wednesday and continue working out with the Bulls over the weekend, when they head to Detroit and Houston.

The G League Windy City Bulls would’ve been an option for Markkanen to get some more intense practices in, but the schedules didn’t line up. So he’ll get his work on the road, and the Bulls will use backups to help get him in game shape.

Hoiberg doesn’t want to put an exact return date on Markkanen, but a Dec. 4 game in Indianapolis would make sense.

“Obviously, when you miss this amount of time and you put the amount of work that he did in the summer, he’s excited to get back out on the floor and see what he can do,’’ Hoiberg said.

That also means that Jabari Parker likely will have to move back to small forward unless Hoiberg decides to move him back to the bench.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there as far as when we get Lauri back,’’ Hoiberg said.

Maybe then Zach LaVine won’t have to carry so much of the load.

Against the Spurs, LaVine had a chance to win the game in the closing seconds in isolation with the ball in his hands. But instead of attacking the rim, he inexplicably called off a screen from Wendell Carter Jr. and put up a 26-foot three-pointer that missed.

It wasn’t the shot Hoiberg wanted from LaVine, but LaVine didn’t back down after the game.

“I didn’t want them to double-team me — that’s why I called the pick away — but I’m going for the win regardless,’’ LaVine said. “If I make it, different result. If I don’t, that’s a bad shot, but I don’t care. I think I can make it, and I will make it in the future.’’