CHICAGO — Matas Buzelis grabbed at his hair, pulling his head to the left and then wrenching it back to the right.

Whatever curse words his mouth formed were drowned out by the dull drone of the disappointed Chicago Bulls crowd at the United Center. Buzelis had just fumbled his sixth turnover against the San Antonio Spurs, batting helplessly at the ball as it was poked from his grasp. Dylan Harper spanned the entire court to score in an instant. With just under five minutes left and the deficit piled up to 13 points, the Bulls were all but out of the game.

Buzelis started the game singing. He sent three separate 3s splashing through the net in the first half, adding 13 points to a 70-point scoring onslaught that put the Bulls up 22 points after two quarters. The Bulls were winning. The ball was moving. It was the type of start that Buzelis had been seeking for weeks — consistent, confident.

And then came the third quarter. In five minutes, all of that swagger evaporated. Buzelis turned the ball over four times in the quarter alone. He took only two shots and missed both of them. The Spurs jumped on Buzelis from the first pass of the second half, crawling up into his space and launching quick doubles that left the wing reeling for the remainder of the game.

“That’s unacceptable, man,” Buzelis said. “That was our game to win. I feel like I lost that game for us.”

Hope has not been a lasting thing for the Bulls this season. Just look at Wednesday night’s 124-119 loss to the Spurs. The first half offered plenty of hope, golden and glowing, to fuel a team that still hasn’t won a game on its own home court. The Bulls hit 10 shots from 3-point range after shooting sub-.300 from deep for the first nine games of the season. Caleb Wilson created opportunities in the half-court. And at least for two quarters, the Bulls seemed to successfully execute a plan to dismantle one of the best teams in the West.

A crucial piece of that plan revolved around Jalen Smith, whose 3-point shooting was a necessity to draw Victor Wembanyama out of the paint. Smith delivered, nailing all five of his attempts from 3-point range to score a team-high 23 points. But despite the relative effectiveness of his perimeter presence, Smith had few answers for Wembanyama on the opposite end of the court, where the Frenchman scored 32 points.

Yet it didn’t really matter that the Bulls showed so many signs of life in the first half, joyfully racking up a double-digit lead on one of the best teams in the league. The Spurs are killers. They exist for the singular purpose of throttling that joy, that life out of their opponent. A little fight early in the game just gave them more of a chance to play with their food.

San Antonio erased that 22-point lead in a matter of minutes in the third quarter, outscoring the Bulls 34-19 in that frame alone. It was not effortless by any means. The Bulls tried to give as good as they got, but they hemorrhaged points through mistakes as they gave up 22 points off 19 turnovers.

The Bulls hoisted the white flag with two minutes and three seconds remaining, rotating their entire secondary unit into the game to wind down the loss. The Spurs followed suit, which turned the final two minutes into an even-handed fight — and allowed the Bulls to carve the deficit down to five points by the final buzzer. But the game was never in reach in that final frame for the Bulls, who are now 1-9 and winless at home.

“As a young team, it’s demoralizing,” Smith said. “You want to win every game but you understand there’s a process to it. We’ve got to be able to put together a whole 48 (minutes) if we want to win. We can’t choose when we want to play hard and when we don’t want to play hard.”

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

1. Wilson sidelined after a hand injury.

Wilson almost didn’t play against the Spurs due to a right hip issue that landed him on the injury report ahead of the game. The rookie warmed up and ultimately earned medical clearance as a game-time decision. Coach Tiago Splitter said there was not an acute source of the injury, but that Wilson began to develop soreness and tightness in his right hip throughout this week.

“We’ve got to be smart with him, of course,” Splitter said. “He’s playing a lot of minutes. I think those minutes are important for his development. But we’ve also got to be smart with his body. I think there’s a false thought that when you’re young, you can do whatever, but that’s not true. You’ve got to get stronger. Your body has got to be prepared and strong to face the season.”

The rookie ended up missing the latter half of Wednesday’s game for a different reason. Less than three minutes into the third quarter, Wilson injured his hand and was taken out of the game. He was ruled out by the end of the quarter.

The Bulls were already playing without Norman Powell, the second-most-prolific offensive player on the roster. Powell missed his second consecutive game with back spasms. Without Powell or Wilson to close the game, the Bulls relied heavily on Josh Giddey and Buzelis to initiate the offense.

2. Claxton takes strides.

The game is starting to slow down for center Nic Claxton, who showcased more of his defensive prowess in his second game with the Bulls. Claxton pounded a block in the first half like he was spiking a volleyball, prompting a fast break that resulted in a dunk of his own on the opposite end. He scored 17 points without taking a single 3-pointer, offering a clear alternative to Smith’s floor-spacing style of play.

Claxton did not play up to his 20-minute post-injury restriction — logging only 15 minutes and 39 seconds — but Splitter said this decision was entirely based on the Bulls’ need to keep the floor spread wide with a shooting big to counter Wembanyama.

3. Alternate rotations are working out.

The Bulls were notably sharper in their second-unit rotations as Splitter continued to cement his preferred rotations in his new roster.

Patrick Williams played the third-most minutes out of any Bulls player, providing a solid defensive presence while leading the entire roster with seven rebounds. Jordan Hawkins and Noa Essengue also featured heavily in this secondary group, which fueled the Bulls in the first half to both establish and maintain their 22-point lead. Before Wilson went out, Buzelis played extensive minutes with these secondary groups, which afforded him greater on-ball privileges (and responsibilities) to create on the offensive end of the ball.

Splitter has not stated any intention of shifting the starting rotation in the future. But the usage of the bench unit — and the preferred pairing of starters in the secondary group — will be a crucial piece of the coach’s decision-making as he determines the preferable alignment for this roster in the future.

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