Rozner: Bulls surrender, go quietly into the night

Well, that was … um, something.

It was, once you boil it down, a few extra games in a long and meaningless basketball season.

Yeah, the Bulls played in a postseason series that ended after six games Friday night, when Boston won its fourth straight and put the Bulls away at the United Center.

Jimmy Butler was hurting, Dwyane Wade was barely engaged and Rajon Rondo was out, while the Bulls went silently into the night.

And so the team that was supposed to get younger and more athletic - at least, that's what we heard a year ago - got older and slower, but did sneak into the playoffs and that will give GM Gar Forman a chance to gloat.

Not that anyone's buying that act.

Outside of two victories collected on the back of Rondo, the man who couldn't find a team and then couldn't find a spot in the Bulls' rotation, there won't be much to remember about this trip to the postseason.

That's the story of the series, that after the Bulls collected all those young point guards, the only one who could play a lick was the one player Fred Hoiberg didn't want on the floor five months ago.

It was the 31-year-old Rondo, who has only a team option for next season.

The man who would be coach - and probably should be coach - was directing traffic on the floor in the first two games and trying to do the same from the bench the last four games.

"I love Rondo. I love coaching Rondo," Hoiberg said. "I love everything about Rondo."

And with Rondo out, Hoiberg was left to try nearly every player on the roster, never finding a solution.

He also never figured out that the Bulls could pound the Celtics inside and keep pounding them inside. The high screen worked for the Bulls in every game, but inevitably they'd get away from it based on who was on the floor and whose turn it was for the touch.

Of course, defense was still a problem, especially for Nikola Mirotic, as the Bulls were helpless in the pick-and-roll.

But these are just superfluous items within a series that never should have happened, the Bulls a late-season entrant to a tournament that has little meaning in the East as long as LeBron James draws breath.

Game 6 was another embarrassment for the home team, a lifeless effort in an elimination game when only Butler seemed seriously interested in continuing this charade for another game - or another series.

It got really bad in the fourth quarter when the Bulls finally got younger and more athletic. Down 29, Hoiberg sent out Bobby Portis, Michael Carter-Williams, Joffrey Lauvergne, Paul Zipser and the invisible man, Denzel Valentine.

On the bench at that point was, among others, Wade. He managed 2 points in 19 minutes and has a $24 million player option for next season.

Wade sat down just after Isaiah Thomas brought his players together under the bucket near the end of the third quarter and yelled - loud enough for the media to hear - "That's a wrap for these (morons)!"

Whatever.

Seriously, the Celtics certainly don't look like much of a threat, perhaps the worst No. 1 seed ever to start the postseason, and alive now only because the Bulls lost their point guard to a thumb injury.

So that's that.

The Bulls played an extra two weeks, winning the first two games in Boston and disappearing after, giving season ticket holders a break and allowing them a refund for the rest of their postseason games.

At least there was no ambush of the media by management this time, as they did a year ago with a surprise news conference after the final game.

Yeah, the Bulls completely quit Friday night, a perfect conclusion to a ridiculous season in which mutinous players did everything but sail the ship to Cuba, once even turning on each other in a fashion so vicious as to make Captain Bligh blush.

Most fans booed as time ran out, and the rest chanted, "Fire Hoiberg." Some did both.

"I understand the frustration," Hoiberg said. "It was frustrating to go out like this."

In any case, if you didn't waste your time with it Friday night, you should know the Bulls' season ended. It's really all you need to know.

Go ahead, it's OK to yawn.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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