BOSTON — The Bulls’ front office took full responsibility Tuesday afternoon for the humiliation this season has been so far. By the evening, it was coach Billy Donovan’s turn to fall on the sword.
The line should have been much longer.
In what might have been rock bottom in a season that already had reached embarrassing depths, the Bulls saved their worst performance for their final In-Season Tournament game, getting obliterated by the Celtics 124-97 at TD Garden.
To make matters worse, guard Zach LaVine left with a sore right foot after scoring only two points on 1-for-9 shooting and forward DeMar DeRozan went out with an injured left ankle and didn’t return. He finished 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 quarterfinal spot in the tournament and clinched it, didn’t seem the least bit concerned about which Bulls were playing and which were in the training room, pouring it on from the tipoff to the final horn.
That included shooting three-pointers late because the tournament rewards scoring margin, as well as putting inconsistent free-throw shooter Andre Drummond on the line several times in the fourth quarter, hoping for misses so they could score more points.
It was 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 at Mazzulla.
‘‘For me, it was just the fouling,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘But I also understand the situation he’s in, too. 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 this is from the league. This is what the league’s done, making this point-differential thing.’’
The Bulls (5-14) had absolutely no answer and often didn’t even appear as though they wanted to resist.
After executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said the Bulls’ poor start was his responsibility earlier in the day, Donovan threw ‘‘100%’’ of the responsibility on his own shoulders.
‘‘What do I need to do better? What does our staff need to do better?’’ Donovan said. ‘‘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.
‘‘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 of tough losses, and we could be .500.’ No, this is what we are, and how can we get better?’’
It didn’t come with the latest change to the starting lineup. Forward Patrick Williams was back in and guard 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 seems to be very few of those right now.
