The Bulls are foregoing the season finale in New York and are now concentrating on the play-in

DeMar DeRozan is still looking for that moment for this year's team.

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

And maybe this moment will catapult you into something special.

That’s DeRozan’s hope. Because at this point, that might be all the 34-year-old has to look forward to as a Bull, with free agency and a front office that could be forced to make some very tough decisions this summer.

A moment would be nice.

“I mean, to be honest, we've had some low points,” DeRozan told reporters after Sunday's 120-119 overtime loss to New York. “I won't reveal when, but there was a time when things became extremely difficult for me. The bond and closeness we had afterwards meant a lot to us that we had to adapt for the season. I don’t look at every negative thing that happened as a bad thing because it made us come back from it in a completely different way.”

The loss to the Knicks was a microcosm of 2023-24 Bulls basketball. Because they were undermanned and had very little room to maneuver, they fought until the end but fell just short.

Nice if this were a Lifetime romcom, but this is the NBA and Cute gets you two tickets and a banana boat reservation for Cancun by next week.

DeRozan wants to make sure the vacation can wait.

Because of this, he played 44 minutes, finishing at the top of the league in minutes played that season. He scored 30 points in a game that didn't change the magnitude of things.

While Tom Thibodeau and his Knicks were hoping for a win and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls (39-43) have been fixated on facing No. 9 vs. No. 10 Atlanta for days. Coach Billy Donovan gave Nikola Vucevic, Alex Caruso and, of course, DeRozan a rest on Friday, but he wanted to make sure they kept a rhythm in the play-in, and they agreed.

Vucevic played 42 minutes and scored 29 points, and Caruso played 41 minutes, scored 15 points and had five steals with eight assists.

“Obviously (New York) was playing for something,” Donovan said. “I felt like this was a good opportunity for us and as I mentioned before the game, the boys wanted to play and there were a lot of good things we could take from this game. “A game like this before Wednesday will be good for us.”

Especially if the game is close, considering the Bulls finished the season with 44 clutch games – third-most in the league – and a league-best 27 wins in those clutch games. However, they failed to secure No. 28.

After missing a prayer at the end of regulation, Jalen Brunson gave his team the lead in the extra stanza with two free throws and a three-pointer from Donte DiVincenzo.

With just over a minute left, the two teams traded poor possessions until Precious Achiuwa secured a crucial offensive rebound and sank it for a four-point lead.

There's a reason DeRozan is nominated for the NBA's Clutch Player of the Year award, and he continued to make his point by hitting a layup while fouling out. After he hit the free throw, the Bulls trailed by just one.

However, it was another offensive rebound that would come back to haunt them, this time when Josh Hart charged in for the tip-in. Bulls guard Caruso had one last answer with 14.1 seconds left, but it stayed that way until the final whistle.