BOSTON – The front office was taking full responsibility on Tuesday afternoon for the humiliation that has been this Bulls season, and by the evening it was Billy Donovan’s turn to fall on the sword.
The line should have been much longer behind the coach.
In what was rock bottom of a season that was already seemingly reaching embarrassing depths, the Bulls saved their worst for the final In-Season Tournament game, getting completely run out of the TD Garden 124-97.
To make matters worse, Zach LaVine tapped out of the game with a sore right foot after scoring just two points on 1-of-9 shooting in 25 minutes of work, while DeMar DeRozan went out with a left ankle injury and never returned, finishing with 19 points.
DeRozan’s injury seemed short-term, but LaVine might need some time off even though he said he was “day-to-day.’’
“It’s sore,’’ LaVine said. “It progressively got worse. I’ve played through a lot of stuff before. It’s complicated … just sore and day-to-day … right now it’s day-to-day.’’
The Celtics, who were playing for a tournament spot and trying to win the scoring margin – which they did – didn’t seem the least bit concerned with which Bulls were playing and which were in the training room, pouring it on from the tip-off to the final horn.
That included shooting threes late, as well as playing hack-a-Drummond, putting inconsistent free throw shooter Andre Drummond on the line in the fourth, hoping for misses so they could get more makes. An act that angered Donovan, leading him to have an on-court discussion with Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
Afterward, Mazzulla sought out Donovan, shook his hand, and apologized, but Donovan wasn’t pointing a finger in Mazzulla’s direction.
“For me it was just the fouling, but I also understand the situation he’s in too,’’ Donovan said. “He’s got to coach his team and do what’s right, but I think it was putting Andre in a tough spot down 30 points. But listen, this is from the league. This is what the league’s done, making this point differential thing.’’
Points that just added to the landslide that the Bulls (5-14) had absolutely no answer for or even seemed like they wanted to resist.
After executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said the poor start was his “responsibility’’ earlier in the day, Donovan threw “100%” of the responsibility on his own shoulders.
“It’s what do I need to do better, what does our staff need to do better? Those are things I’m trying to work at, so certainly there’s things from my vantage point as I look at it coaching-wise that we have to be better to help the group,’’ Donovan said. “Yeah, I take ownership in this too in terms of what I’ve got to do. I’m not obviously making the decisions that maybe Arturas is making or Jerry and Michael (Reinsdorf) are making, and I’m not making decisions on the court that the players are making. But what do I have control over? What’s my responsibility? Where can I get better and how can I improve to help?
“I’m a big believer in you are what your record says you are. I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Well, we had a couple tough losses, and we could be .500 … ‘ No, this is what we are and how can we get better and how to improve?’’
It didn’t come with the latest lineup change to the starting lineup, as Patrick Williams was back in and Alex Caruso was back with the second unit trying to stabilize that group again.
Different look, same results.
“Once you get past the disappointment, the next thing is solutions,’’ Donovan said.
There seem to be very few of those right now.