The Bulls are walking a fine line these days.

Actually, they are tripping over that line awkwardly and landing on their faces.

How many injuries can one team take versus still having enough on the floor to beat lottery-bound opponents?

A fair question to ask, and one that this roster is failing on a nightly basis.

Yes, the Bulls training room was a very crowded one on Wednesday. Forget the news that rookie Noa Essengue was headed for season-ending shoulder surgery, especially because he wasn’t a contributor. They were, however, without Coby White (left calf), Jalen Smith (hamstring), Isaac Okoro (back), Tre Jones (ankle), Kevin Huerter (groin), and still awaiting Zach Collins (left wrist).

In a no-excuse business like the NBA, Billy Donovan still had Josh Giddey – playing at an All-Star level, Nikola Vucevic, Matas Buzelis, Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams. Not world beaters but should have been enough there to beat the four-win Nets led by Michael Porter Jr. and a bunch of rookies.

Brooklyn wasn’t in a cooperating mood.

Thanks to 33 points from Porter, the Bulls (9-12) lost 113-103 and have now dropped five straight. It’s not just the five they’ve lost, but to whom. The Nets now join the likes of fellow basement dwellers like New Orleans, Charlotte and Indiana that have man-handled the Bulls in the last 10 days.

No wonder Vucevic looked so frustrated several times throughout the game.

“Rough game for me,” Vucevic said. “Didn’t play very well and the team didn’t play very well. You get down and you’re losing, frustration is going to show, so part of it. I didn’t have a good game and was frustrated, mainly with myself. I wasn’t doing my job, so that’s it.”

Vucevic finished 6-of-18 from the field for 16 points, while Giddey led the Bulls with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

Back it up

Not having an elite defender like Okoro has been an obvious hole that this roster isn’t built to overcome, and Donovan didn’t have the best news on the forward, either.

He’s been dealing with some sort of pinched nerve that is causing issues in the back and with his legs. Not exactly a quick fix.

“When he gets into certain extensions going backwards, he gets pain down his leg that they’re trying to resolve,” Donovan said. “To be quite honest, it’s going to take time. Until they can eliminate that it’s going to be hard for him to come back and play.”

Shirts and skins

The Bulls have four off days next week to try and get healthy, but it’s not as simple as scrimmages and practices to whip everyone back into shape.

With two more games left this week before the break, that means more of a heavy workload for the likes of Vucevic, Giddey and Buzelis. They’ll need to get some rest in next week, while others like White and Collins need to get in work.

“You do have players like Matas, like Vooch, like Josh, and Ayo that have absorbed a lot of minutes,” Donovan said. “So we’ve got to come up with something for those guys, what do they need? Then you’ve got like Zach Collins, maybe Isaac, different players that haven’t had that, they need some practice time. We’ve got to map that out pretty well. I don’t think we’ll have everyone together.”