The Bulls’ postseason hopes are in jeo-pardy, but that’s been true for a while now. They’re seven games below .500 at the All-Star break and two games behind the 10th-place Raptors for the last play-in tournament spot in the Eastern Conference.

More concerning than that, though, is this week’s acknowledgment from maximum-contract guard Zach LaVine that the Bulls don’t have an identity — and it’s holding them back.

“Even if guys are in and out of the lineup, you see some teams that have consistency with what they do,” LaVine said after Thursday night’s 112-100 loss to the Bucks, the Bulls’ sixth straight defeat. “They have an identity. That’s something we’re still trying to figure out. Obviously, we changed our offense a little bit this year from last year. But it’s no excuse with the type of talent we have on the team.”

LaVine’s remarks came in response to a question about the Bulls’ waning offense. Their offensive rating is 24th in the NBA after they’ve gone 3-6 in February.

Five times this season, they’ve blown a lead of 16 points or greater, including a 24-point lead in Wednesday night’s

117-113 loss to the Pacers, which matched the second-largest blown lead in the NBA this season. In fact, the Bulls are in the top five of that list three times, having also blown 21-point leads against the Pacers and Cavaliers in January.

Coach Billy Donovan and the players have cited a number of issues, the most common being a lack of composure and consistency when opponents push back.

“That’s been our problem all year — up big in games and find a way to lose them,” LaVine said. “We have to stop beating ourselves. It’s a recurring theme. One through 15, the guys are tired of losing, the miscues in games that we’re leading.”

The Bulls face an uphill battle coming out of the break, but there will be immediate opportunities to regain control of their playoff pursuits. After hosting the Nets on Friday, they face the Wizards at home and the Raptors on the road to close out the month.

There’s still a belief within the team, echoed by LaVine and Donovan after the Bucks loss, that the Bulls are capable of making the playoffs. The issue is that they have no clear answer on what, exactly, needs to change.

“If you don’t expect to [win], you have to find some way somehow,” LaVine said. “Obviously, we’re a game or two out of the play-in right now. [We have to] just try and go day by day, game by game and see where we go from there.”

The best thing going for the Bulls is the extended downtime before they play the Nets. Rest will be critical in getting them back to full strength. Donovan had no expectations about whether DeMar DeRozan (thigh), Goran Dragic (left knee) and Derrick Jones Jr. (left adductor) will be ready to go by next Friday, although DeRozan was expected to appear in the All-Star Game on Sunday night.

Beyond rest, though, this group might benefit from time away from each other. The struggle to explain inexplicable errors that have given them the seventh-worst record in the NBA appears exhausting — as does searching for an identity 59 games into the season.

Maybe they’ll have answers on the other side of the break. But the safer assumption when it comes to these Bulls is more inconsistency.

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The VHS tapes meant everything to Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan.

That was his All-Star Weekend growing up in Compton, California, his All-Star experience.

”The All-Star Game, the whole festivities around it, that was always a big thing for me as a kid,” DeRozan, 33, told the Sun-Times in a recent interview. ”My dad would record all of it on those VHS tapes, and I would go back and watch the game, the dunk contest, the whole event over and over again.”

At least until someone accidentally taped over it or the tape simply wore down. After all, the life cycle on a VHS tape isn’t forever.

But DeRozan’s drive is.

”To be honest, I’ve always had that confidence and that work ethic, and growing up you chase those dreams,” said DeRozan, who is in his 14th season. ”You want the big college; you want to make it to the pros. I’d watch those tapes and have all these wishful thoughts that I wanted to be a part of it.

”For me, it’s always finding things that are in my imagination that also give me a drive to reach. Being in the NBA and an All-Star was definitely high on the list. And I’m always humbled to be named to [an All-Star Game] because it’s still one of those unbelievable moments. So to be sitting here and going to another one . . . it’s still humbling.”

Six times humbling. Each one is still meaningful, and that never will change.

Sure, DeRozan’s right hip isn’t feeling great — he missed the Bulls’ last two games before the All-Star break because of it — but all indications are that he will be good to go Sunday in Salt Lake City.

But there is something else going on with DeRozan these days.

His career earnings are about $230 million, he became the 50th player in NBA history this season to reach the 20,000-point milestone and now he has six All-Star Games on his r?sum?.

He admitted, however, that he has reached the point in his career where he knows there’s one thing that has eluded him and that the clock is ticking.

When NBA careers are evaluated, championship rings are the difference between ordinary and legendary.

DeRozan has 63 playoff games under his belt and reached the Eastern Conference finals with the Raptors in the 2015-16 season before the team lost to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in six games.

That was painful enough. But the real anguish would come three seasons later. By that time, DeRozan had been traded to the Spurs and had to watch Kawhi Leonard lead the Raptors to the NBA title in their first season without him.

There has been a lot for DeRozan to reconcile since then, and a championship would enable him to get past it.

”I think the older I get, the more that motivation for a championship grows because you have even a smaller window of knowing how long you might play this game,” DeRozan said. ”That’s just the reality of it for me. With that, every morning I get up, you think about that.

”I always tell the young guys now that it’s terrifying for me. . . . I mean, you look at them and let them know there’s only X amount of games left in the season. They look at you like you’re crazy because I understand that once those games are up — playoff, no playoff, whatever happens — I’ve got to get ready for my 15th year. Then maybe that one flies by, and it’s my 16th year. The reality of it kicks in.

”I always look at everything with the idea that as long as I’ve got time, I’ve got an opportunity. Until it’s done, I’ll deal with those feelings then. When it’s all said and done, I hope I can lay at home and say: ‘Whether that championship happened or not, I gave everything I had. Some things are meant to be, some things are not meant to be.’ That’s what I’ll have to deal with.”

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OTTAWA, Ontario — Blackhawks center Max Domi has kept any worries about his uncertain future out of his mind by occupying himself with on-ice concerns.

”You literally dive headfirst into your game,” he said. ”I don’t want to say ‘overwhelm yourself’ because I’m not overwhelming myself, but just consume yourself with thinking about each and every game and the preparation that goes into that.”

The Hawks’ jam-packed recent schedule — their 4-3 overtime victory Friday against the Senators ended one stretch of three games in four days, but they’ll start another such stretch Sunday — also has helped him ”stay locked in.”

But entering Friday, Domi’s all-consuming thoughts about his recent play hadn’t been entirely positive, either.

”It has been weird since after the [All-Star] break,” he said. ”I’ve had a lot of chances — we’ve had a lot of chances — and we can’t seem to bury them. That happens. It’s such a roller coaster. We’ve talked about it throughout the year, but you really just have to stay with it.”

Domi did and finally reaped some of the rewards he had missed in the last few weeks.

He connected with Patrick Kane on a two-on-zero in front of the net 44 seconds into the game. A couple of hours later, he again worked with Kane on a two-on-one break and earned his second assist of the night when Kane ripped a game-tying goal with 3:05 left.

Andreas Athanasiou’s overtime winner — after goalie Petr Mrazek made several huge saves — ultimately gave the Hawks a feel-good victory to close what had been a disappointing road trip.

”The way they persevered to come back from two goals down on the road . . . that shows a lot of guts,” coach Luke Richardson said. ”I’m proud of them.”

Domi now has three points in his last two games since snapping a four-game pointless streak with an assist Wednesday against the Maple Leafs.

Before making the pass Wednesday to Philipp Kurashev, however, Domi had his own great shooting opportunity in the faceoff circle. His decision to pull up and wait for Kurashev to join the rush paid off, but Richardson urged him Friday to shoot the puck in those situations in the future.

”We talked a couple of times,” Richardson said. ”I really want him shooting that puck more. We needed it [Friday]; he just didn’t really have the opportunity to shoot it much more. But I liked that he was moving his feet more and creating plays.”

Domi hasn’t scored since Jan. 21 against the Blues, having been denied on 35 consecutive shots and 18 scoring chances in a row during the 10 games since, including on three shots and one chance Friday.

The Hawks even planned to adjust their power-play strategy to get Domi in the up-top position a few times. They hoped that would allow him to come “downhill” and lean into his shots, Richardson said. But they never really got it set up, falling to an abysmal 1-for-29 on the power play in their last 13 games.

All these mixed patterns and signals in different areas will give Domi plenty to focus on, even if the rumors around him increase leading up to the trade deadline March 3.

It was hardly a secret that the Hawks initially signed Domi to a one-year contract with the idea of potentially flipping him for a draft pick. He knew that, too.

But he also has made it clear he would prefer to stay in Chicago and re-sign, and he has become a popular teammate. It all adds up to a hard-to-predict situation in the next two weeks.

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The Chicago Blackhawks played and won on Friday night which was fun to watch. It was a thrilling overtime win for Chicago. Despite being in contention for the draft lottery, it is nice to see them feel good after a win every now and again.

However, not a single NHL game is going to be the biggest story now that this big trade was announced. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild, and St. Louis Blues completed a blockbuster trade.

Ryan O’Reilly, alongside Noel Acciari, is headed to the Maple Leafs in exchange for Mikhail Abramov, Adam Gaudette, Toronto’s first-rounder in 2023, Ottawa’s third-rounder in 2023, and Toronto’s third-rounder in 2024. It is fair to call this a blockbuster deal.

The Wild facilitated the deal by taking a fourth found pick to retain 25 percent of O’Reilly’s contract. The Blues will retain 50 percent of it. This is only the seventh trade in NHL history where a team does what the Wild did.

The Chicago Blackhawks market has been helped by the Ryan O’Reilly trade.

Obviously, this changes the landscape of the entire league. Now, the Blues are down Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly which means they are full-blown sellers.

It also makes the Leafs a deeper, grittier hockey team which is what they desperately needed. They will have O’Reilly as their third center behind Auston Matthews and John Tavares. Few teams in the league can compete with a 1-2-3 like that. This is an amazing deal for them.

This move does help the Blackhawks too. It proves that big-money contracts can be moved if you are willing to take that risk. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are not immovable. They are also players that can return the Hawks a lot.

When you look at what the Blues got for O’Reilly with 75 percent of his contract retained, that is amazing for them as they start their retool (or rebuild, we will see). Maybe the Hawks can add another first-round pick or two for their stars.

This is just the beginning. The trade deadline, and the weeks leading up to it, are going to be crazy. This trade is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) so far this seasons.

Of course, O’Reilly and the Maple Leafs will play their first game together on Sunday night in Chicago. That will certainly be one that has everyone’s eyes on it.

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The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the worst teams in the National Hockey League. They are tanking hard for Connor Bedard but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a win every now and again.

They got one of those on Friday night with an overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators in Canada’s capital. The win came by a final score of 4-3. It was an outstanding way to head into the weekend as everyone is feeling good about themselves.

All eyes were on Patrick Kane in this one as the trade deadline is drawing closer and closer. He isn’t having a good season at all and needs to pick it up if the Hawks want to maximize his value. He did just that in this game against the Sens.

Kane scored two goals to help Chicago earn this comeback victory on the road. He now has 11 goals on the season. He is still putting up some points but nothing like what we are used to seeing from him in a typical season of his.

The Chicago Blackhawks have a big Patrick Kane decision to make soon.

A lot of it has to do with the fact that the team is very bad. He doesn’t play with good players on a regular basis anymore and that has hurt his production. If/when he gets traded to a contender, don’t be surprised if he starts lighting up the league again.

Showtime isn’t done being an elite player. He will bounce back once he is done with this miserable situation that he is in right now. The Chicago Blackhawks, as mentioned before, need to keep him on top of his game so he can keep scoring the way he was in this game.

This version of Patrick Kane can be a game-changer and that is what they want other teams to see in him. Having a monster game like this will do wonders for his confidence as the trade deadline is now just a few weeks away.

Kane and the Hawks are now done with this four-game Canadian road trip where this Ottawa game was the only one that they picked up a win.

Now, they will be at home on Sunday to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time in three games. Oddly enough, the Maple Leafs are a team that may consider making a big move for Kane as they try to win their first playoff series in over a decade.

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The Bears will release defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad after a disappointing first season in Matt Eberflus’ defense, ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting.

Cutting Muhammad is an expected move as part of an anticipated overhaul of the defense after the Bears finished last in the NFL in points allowed (27.2 points per game) and sacks (20) and 29th in yards allowed in the first season under Eberflus and defensive coordinator Alan Williams in 2022.

Muhammad, a sixth-round draft pick by the Saints in 2017, blossomed into a productive player in Eberflus’ defense with the Colts after they signed him in 2018 — he had six sacks as a full-time starter in 2021. But he could not repeat that success with the Bears last season after signing a two-year, $8 million contract as a free agent. Muhammad had one sack, three quarterback hits and one forced fumble in 16 games (nine starts).

Muhammad had a $4.46 million salary cap number for 2023. With the Bears incurring a $500,000 dead-cap charge, they will free up nearly $4 million in salary cap space if they cut him with a post-June 1 designation.

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The Chicago Bears are cutting defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad after he was one of Ryan Poles first big plays free agency signings from a year ago.

Al-Quadin Muhammad was a free agent signing that came over from the Indianapolis Colts.  He had experience in Matt Eberflus’ defense and was expected to be a decent contributor to the Bears’ defense in 2022.  Instead he racked up one sack in 16 games and was a huge disappointment on defense.

Muhammad looked like a bad signing from the get-go when he stepped on the field in Chicago.  Muhammad was given starter reps ahead of Trevis Gipson and then moved ahead of Dominique Robinson on the depth chart despite Robinson clearly looking like the better player.  Robert Quinn was traded and Muhammad became the focal point of the pass rush.  He failed in a big way and won’t be missed at all.

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MESA, ARIZ. – The Cubs signed corner infielder Edwin R?os to a one-year contract on Friday. The deal was worth $1 million, according to a source.

He was already with the team at the spring training site in Mesa, Arizona when the deal became official.

In a corresponding move, the Cubs put reliever Ethan Roberts (Tommy John surgery) on the 60-day injured list.

R?os, a left-handed hitter, joins the position battle at third base, one that includes Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal and Zach McKinstry. He also adds depth to the Cubs’ first base options and can play the corner outfield. R?os has a minor-league option year left and two more years of club control remaining after this season.

In four years with the Dodgers, R?os played a total of 112 games. He was slashing .244/.293/.500 with seven home runs last year before a hamstring injury and trip to the 60-day IL interrupted his season in early June. When he returned from injury, the Dodgers optioned him to Triple-A.

Roberts was an obvious 60-day IL candidate. He’s in the fourth week of his throwing program, stretched out to 75 feet on flat ground. He told the Sun-Times he’s targeting a full return about 14 months post-op, which would be in September.

“It sucks — I put the team in a bad spot with me being on the IL for a year and a half,” Roberts said. “It’s terrible. But this organization has been really good to me. Fans have been awesome. And I’m gonna make it up to them. It’s going to be fun. Just got to give me a little bit of time, but I’m going to make it up to everybody.”

Game of telephone

PitchCom is evolving, with MLB now permitting pitchers to wear devices to call their own pitches, rather than signs always going from the catcher to the pitcher. Though much of the Cubs pitching staff has given PitchCom positive reviews since implementing it last year, introducing the two-way system isn’t that simple.

“The one thing we just get concerned about is if the pitchers hitting it and the catcher’s hitting at the same time and stuff’s getting relayed back and forth,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “[Before] the catcher would put down a sign, a guy would shake, there’s a direct line of communication. When it’s just people hitting buttons, things can get a little disconnected.”

Fulmer sighting

Right-handed reliever Michael Fulmer sat in front of a locker bearing his name in the Sloan Park complex clubhouse Friday morning. But the Cubs had yet to clear a spot on the 40-man roster to make his signing official. Fulmer is joining the Cubs on a one-year, $4 million contract, a source confirmed.

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High school kids are awkward. That’s natural. High school big men take things to another level. No matter how promising a prospect is, when you get to 6-9 and taller there is almost always a hitch, a hesitation, some kind of very obvious flaw.

Drew Scharnowski, Burlington Central’s 6-9 senior, somehow avoided most of that. He flows and floats on the court with an easy athleticism that is uncommon.

Scharnowski has no clue how that grace happened and (probably correctly) puts it down to good genes.

“It just comes like that to me,” Scharnowski said. “My dad has always been tall and moves well and my mom was a Division I swimmer.”

Scharnowski took the good fortune and made himself into a dominant basketball player, not just a tall kid.

The Belmont recruit is averaging 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks. He finished with 16 points and seven rebounds in three quarters of play on the road Friday, leading the Rockets to a 60-47 win against Huntley.

“[Scharnowski] is a hard worker,” teammate Nick Gouriotis said. “I’ve been there for a lot of that. He might be the hardest worker I know. It’s awesome because you see the progression. Each year he just gets better mentally, physically and just as a basketball player as a whole.”

Scharnowski is generally acknowledged as the best player in Burlington Central history.

“Some great players have come through here but with what he’s done this year he has cemented his legacy,” Rockets coach Brett Porto said.

Burlington Central (26-5, 15-2 Fox Valley) jumped on Huntley quickly, forcing a flurry of turnovers in the first few minutes of the game. The Red Raiders (20-10, 12-6) righted the ship and kept things close until midway through the third quarter when the Rockets went on a 10-0 run, led 46-27 and never looked back.

Burlington Central has been on the cusp of the Super 25 all season, but never cracked the rankings. The Rockets won their conference and are one of the two top seeds in the Class 3A Burlington Central Sectional.

All that success is a bit of a surprise. Scharnowski was expected to be excellent, but the Rockets lost every other starter from last year’s team, which was 31-4.

Several of Scharnowski’s senior classmates stepped up, including Gouriotis and Matt Lemon, the son of Daily Herald sportswriter John Lemon.

Lemon set a school record for assists this season with more than 160.

“I have pictures of myself at like three years old watching high school basketball with my dad,” Lemon said. “So it’s been special to get a chance to play and have this kind of a season. I remember going to Geneva-Batavia rivalries and the St. Charles games my dad was covering.”

So Lemon, a teenager that has already seen hundreds of high school basketball games, knows his teammate is special.

“With [Scharnowski] it’s basically like playing with another guard,” Lemon said. “You can put him anywhere on the court, one through five. It’s amazing to get to play with someone like that.”

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — It started during the offseason and, as expected, is a talking point during the first week of spring training. The White Sox are using the disappointment of 2022 as a rallying point.

”You probably heard multiple guys in the clubhouse say we have something to prove to ourselves, to the fans, to the league,” right-hander Michael Kopech said Friday. ”We should have had a better season last year. We have the talent; we always seem to have the talent. It’s a matter of coming together and doing the little things right.”

Limited to 25 starts and 119 1/3 innings because of knee and shoulder problems in his first full season as a starter in 2022, Kopech — who will turn 27 in April — wants to prove he can stay healthy and make 30-plus starts in the middle of the rotation. He had a 3.54 ERA with 105 strikeouts and 57 walks in 2022.

Kopech ended the season on the injured list with shoulder inflammation and had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.

”The knee’s feeling better, the shoulder’s feeling better,” Kopech said. ”But it’s just kind of smoothing things out and getting back to 100%.”

Manager Pedro Grifol said Kopech ”is right on pace” to be ready at the start of the season, but he most likely won’t pitch until the second series after the Sox open in Houston. That means a potential start in the home opener April 3 against the Giants.

Lauding ‘Yas’

Catcher Yasmani Grandal battled leg injuries, appeared in only 99 games and batted .202/.301/.269 with five home runs last season. He also struggled defensively.

But Grifol opened his post-workout media session talking about how good Grandal looked throwing to second base.

”He’s healthy,” Grifol said.

The biggest thing for Grandal, who went through an intense offseason training regimen, is his ability to work with healthier legs.

”His work capacity is really high,” Grifol said. ”Before, his work capacity wasn’t as high; you couldn’t rep him out the way we’re repping him out now. . . . That means the work in the offseason was really good and his body is allowing him to work at a high level for a longer period of time.”

Grifol said he will play Grandal’s workload by ear. He expects him to catch a lot in Cactus League games and in as many games as possible in the regular season.

”I really haven’t thought about him as a DH,” Grifol said. ”That doesn’t mean that he’s not gonna. He’s our catcher. And we want him to catch.”

Robert MVP material, Grifol says

Center fielder Luis Robert also dealt with injuries in 2022 and was limited to 98 games.

If Robert even approaches 150 games, Grifol said: ”This guy has an opportunity to win an MVP. If he puts it all together, it’s special. We’ve all seen the power, we’ve seen the speed, we’ve seen the way he runs out there in center field, how he plays defense and steals bases. There’s really nothing he can’t do on a baseball field. We just have to keep him on the field.”

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