CHICAGO _ On Nov. 8, 2001, during what was then a franchise-record 53-point loss to the Timberwolves in Minnesota, coach Tim Floyd replaced starters Charles Oakley, Marcus Fizer, Brad Miller, Greg Anthony and Ron Mercer with the rarely seen five-man substitution of Fred Hoiberg, Kevin Ollie, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry and Trenton Hassell.
Oakley blasted the move afterward, drawing a $50,000 fine from general manager Jerry Krause.
History repeated itself Saturday night at the United Center during the Bulls' 133-77 loss to the Celtics. The 56-point margin set a franchise mark for largest loss.
It's also the largest margin of victory in Celtics history and ties the NBA record for largest margin of victory in a road game.
Boos rained down loudly as the Bulls trudged off the court.
In his third game as coach, Jim Boylen reprised Floyd's move not once but twice. First, he yanked starters Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr., Justin Holiday and Ryan Arcidiacono at the 7 minute, 15 second mark of the first quarter with the Bulls scoreless, down by 13 and 0 for 8.
The lineup of Robin Lopez, Jabari Parker, Chandler Hutchison, Shaquille Harrison and Cameron Payne didn't fare much better. They trailed 17-0 before Parker scored the Bulls' first points on free throws at the 5:42 mark. Lopez finally made the first field goal after 11 misses at the 5:06 mark.
Then, after the Celtics got off to a modest 5-3 start to open the second half, Boylen tried the move again. He pulled all five starters at the 9:02 mark of the third, using the same five substitutes.
The move fared even worse this time. The starters checked out trailing 69-46 and never returned, sitting the final 21:02. The Celtics led by as many as 58 and were actually beating the Bulls to 50-50 balls and throwing alley-oop dunks on fast breaks down the stretch.
And people thought the blowout loss to the Warriors was bad.
"Disappointing effort. Disappointing outcome after a hard-fought two games," Boylen said. "I'm disappointed. I'm not discouraged. We gotta care more about our effort on a nightly basis."
One potential issue with a five-man substitution is if the reserve group gets blasted, as the Bulls' did in the second half, where do you turn after that? Boylen chose never go to back to his starters.
"I wanted to give the other guys a chance to right the ship a little bit," Boylen said. "I've been a part of teams who have tried that before. We didn't honor the game with our effort. So not take them out?
"We need some leadership to step up."
The first time, Boylen gathered the pulled starters as they came off the court and talked to them. The second time, he didn't.
"To me the buy-in is a daily commitment," Boylen said before the game. "It's not something you just say and it's done forever. It's like your marriage. You don't get married and everything is hunky-dory. You gotta work at it, gotta keep doing it.
"Every coach in the league is trying to get their team to buy in. And I think there are moments they feel they are and moments they feel they aren't. It's figuring out why they aren't and changing it. We've got a long ways to go."
In a mere six days, Boylen has publicly challenged his team's toughness and conditioning, moved Parker to a reserve role and held two two-hour-plus practices and a 90-minute shootaround. He also held practices on both off days between games last week, a rarity in December, and scheduled a Sunday practice following a back-to-back set of games with a Monday game looming. That's also atypical.
At least the starters will be rested for that session and perhaps the more suicide sprints it may entail. No starter logged more than 20 minutes. LaVine actually shot 4 for 6 for 11 points in his mere 18:53 of action. The starters shot 10 for 29 overall.
Daniel Theis scored a career-high 22 points as a starter for Al Horford, a late scratch with knee soreness. The Celtics shot 53.8 percent overall and 51.2 percent from 3-point range.
Boylen even dusted off the rarely used Antonio Blakeney and Cristiano Felicio, both of whom played more than Carter.
