Getting Bulls rookie Wendell Carter over ‘in-game failure’ is Jim Boylen’s focus

Lauri Markkanen took great pleasure in dishing out this assist.

“Less hair,’’ Markkanen interjected from several feet away.

His rookie teammate couldn’t help but laugh.

“Definitely less hair,’’ said Wendell Carter Jr., who agreed that was the biggest difference between Bulls coach Jim Boylen and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, his college coach.

The one-liners didn’t end there, either. The topic of Coach K’s hair being real or fake also came up.

“For sure, his hair is fake . . . facts,’’ Carter said, laughing a bit.

Carter needed the levity, too, especially with the slump he has been battling.

In November, Carter, 19, played like a big man worthy of the seventh overall pick, averaging 12 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks.

In December, his story has taken an unfavorable twist. He’s averaging 7.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.

Foul trouble — Carter is tied for third in the NBA with 104 — is a big reason for the downturn, but confidence also is a factor. Carter has to move beyond mistakes to the next play, the next possession, the next game.

“That’s something I used to struggle with a lot,’’ he said. ‘‘I always worried about plays that happened in the past and let that mess up my game. Since I was little, that’s something I’ve always worked on.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m there, where I’m able to move on from a play, but I definitely have gotten a whole lot better than I used to be. One play could usually mess me up for a whole game, but now it may wrinkle me for a play or two. I’m getting a whole lot better at moving on from plays, especially when I feel like I could have done something different.’’

That’s what Boylen is homing in on with Carter, trying to stimulate that confidence to move past mistakes. If that means playing him with third-stringers — like he did in mop-up time Monday against the Thunder — so be it.

Boylen wants him to leave games with a good taste in his mouth and learn how to turn the page when things don’t go so well.

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“There are a couple of things with Wendell: First of all, he’s one of the toughest guys I’ve ever been around in my life, especially for that age,’’ Boylen said. “He also wants to please; he wants to help us win. So when he’s in foul trouble, he feels he can’t do that, so there’s frustration there.

“Then maybe there’s an in-game mistake. I call it in-game failure from play to play. Handling in-game failure, he’s got to grow with that, and he knows it. But he’s so hard on himself. It’s something we’ve talked about. He’s so competitive. It’s just a learning thing, man. I’ll take guys like him all day long. He’ll be just fine.’’

Carter concurs that he’ll be fine, especially under Boylen, who has a lot of Coach K qualities.

“The only thing I’ll say is different is Coach K has a track record behind him, which I know that only comes with time,’’ Carter said. “Other than that, I see a lot of similarities between them, like not letting anything slide, making sure everyone owns up to their mistakes, owns up to their accomplishments.’’

Just not the hair. Definitely not the hair.