Bulls guard Coby White was fighting a cold.
On his list of concerns, however, the sniffles didn’t rank too high.
Frustration, anxiety about the locker room possibly starting to divide, his calf issues, his pending free agency and the Bulls losing to subpar NBA teams and sinking in the standings all ranked higher.
A cold? That will pass.
‘‘Whatever we do, we’ve got to do it together,’’ White said when he was asked about how the Bulls are going to get out of their six-game losing streak. ‘‘That’s the most important thing.
‘‘I’ve been here a long time. I’ve seen a lot of different situations, been in different scenarios, and the most important thing is we can’t start pointing fingers or anything like that. I’m not saying by any means we’ve done that, but we’re all human. So the most important thing right now is we’ve got to stick together. It’s still a very long season.
‘‘I’ve been through the ups and downs here for seven years now, so the most important thing is we stick together through this.’’
That might be easier said than done.
The Bulls are beyond banged up and confirmed Saturday that rookie forward Noa
Essengue will have season-ending shoulder surgery in the coming week — something coach Billy Donovan had made known Wednesday. That puts the list at six players unable to suit up right now. It has been as high as seven in the last week.
And those injuries have led to embarrassing defensive breakdowns, inconsistent shooting and, as Donovan described it, too much isolation ball for a team with very few isolation players.
In the Bulls’ case, that has meant a team that started the season 6-1 and was the surprise of the Eastern Conference has gone 3-12 since, including losses to cellar-dwellers such as the Pacers (twice), Pelicans, Hornets and Nets.
‘‘The season is always going to be filled with adversity, so we’ve got a chance to change the narrative,’’ White said. ‘‘The most important thing for me is we don’t let go of the rope and we do this thing together.’’
The good news for White and the Bulls is that some helping hands will be back soon.
Guards Tre Jones (ankle) and Ayo Dosunmu (thumb) are expected to be out only a short time, and the Bulls got some size back in the frontcourt when backup center Zach Collins made his regular-season debut Friday.
Still, forward Isaac Okoro’s back issues continue to be a concern. Okoro, the Bulls’ best defender, is dealing with a pinched nerve, so his timetable is blurry. They are 1-6 without him.
Even when Okoro returns, however, White knows victories aren’t guaranteed to follow.
‘‘Nothing in the league is easily fixable,’’ White said. ‘‘You’re playing against the best competition every night, the best players in the world. We’re going to have to put in the effort, fight and claw every night to get back to where we want to get to, but I believe we can.
‘‘We’re a close group; we’ve got a lot of great relationships on this team. For us, we’ve got to continue to have the honest conversations we’re having with each other, continue to grow. It’s going to take all of us and it’s going to take a ton of spirit, a ton of heart. But it is fixable, which is the most important thing.’’
If that doesn’t happen, the Bulls’ sleepy front office will have to wake up and make some difficult decisions. White headlines a list of Bulls whose contracts will expire after the season. Besides him, there’s Dosunmu, Collins, center Nikola Vucevic and guards Kevin Huerter and Jevon Carter. The Bulls also will have to decide what to do with forward Julian Phillips and swingman Dalen Terry after their rookie deals end.
If things can’t be fixed, that would lead to wholesale movement, right?
‘‘We’ve got a lot of season left,’’ White said.
That might not necessarily be a good thing.