NEW ORLEANS — The film isn’t lying to coach Billy Donovan.

Opponents have seized on the Bulls’ lack of physicality, especially on defense. And it’s not only the elite teams. We’re talking about conference cellar dwellers such as the Wizards and Pelicans.

There’s blood in the water, and the sharks are circling.

“I think teams are putting that on front street and making us confront it, which I think is the best thing for our group, quite honestly,” Donovan said after an embarrassing 13-point loss to the Pelicans on Monday.

So what’s the Bulls’ counterpunch at this point?

It’s not in executive vice president Arturas Karnisovas’ nature to make an aggressive swing for a player after 17 games, so it has to come from within. It simply can’t fall on Isaac Okoro every game.

“For our team, maybe outside Isaac Okoro, we don’t have one guy right now where you can say, ‘This guy is a defensive stopper, this is what this guy hangs his hat on.’ We don’t have that,” Donovan said. “So we have to do it collectively. It’s not one guy’s fault; it’s all of us. It’s the coaches, the players, we all have to do it.

“We just don’t have the type of guys that you’re going to put on a guy, and he’s going to shut them down.”

Not yet, but that’s where guard Ayo Dosunmu comes in. At least he’s putting his hand up as a volunteer.

“Of course, it starts with me, also, just being one of the guys that is always on the ball,” Dosunmu said. “We understand what we’ve got to do, but now it’s about buckling down. We’ve shown it plenty of times this season, but now it’s about doing it on a consistent basis.”

If Dosunmu can handle the opposing team’s best backcourt player and Okoro can try putting handcuffs on the best wing/frontcourt player, there’s hope, but it’s still a big ask if the overall physicality doesn’t improve.

No one should be surprised, however. Karnisovas watched this far too often last season and still brought back almost the same roster.

In swapping Lonzo Ball for Okoro, the Bulls traded one good defender for another. Noa Essengue was drafted 12th overall, but at 18 is built more like a contortionist than a forward who’s going to bring the wood.

Everything else has remained about the same.

There’s a reason the Bulls are 23rd in defensive-efficiency rating. The front office wasn’t proactive in addressing the issue, so it will fall on Donovan and his players.

“I just think that physically sometimes we get pushed out of the way, we get driven through,” Donovan said. “There are times I look at it and say, ‘OK, this matchup overwhelmed us physically.’ I’m OK with that if I see guys really putting their body between their man and the basket, really hitting and blocking out. I gotta see that, and I’m not seeing that.

“Size does, at times, cause us issues, I’m just being honest, but you’ve also got to find the guys that are willing to do it. I think that’s what Arturas was probably looking at with this group where, ‘OK, we’ve established an identity. We’re playing fast, but when our fast break got taken away, we really didn’t have a lot of other ways to beat you.’ We’ve got to lean into the physicality part. That’s the step we’re trying to take and see who can take it with us.”