To say Fred Hoiberg was upset following Tuesday's (AEDT) 105-89 loss to the Celtics would be an understatement.
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The Bulls coach said his team "quit playing" during the "embarrassing" loss.
"I’m really disappointed the way we came out of the gate," Hoiberg told reporters, via the Chicago Tribune . "Things got tough, and we shut down. We quit playing. … Our offense was brutal, absolutely brutal. We got stagnant, we quit moving. When things got tough, we just kind of gave in and said: OK, this is too hard for us. That was embarrassing the way we got outworked."
The Celtics jumped out to a 25-6 lead and held a 35-16 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
Bulls point guard Zach LaVine described the effort as "terrible all around" and that the Bulls got their "ass whipped."
"When things got tough, we were stone-faced," Hoiberg said. "We quit talking and competing.
"With a bad start you hope that you can cover that up with good defense, but we didn’t do that. We kind of gave in as opposed to getting tough."