In a shocking twist, the Bulls got even more embarrassing

You know the Dead Coach Bounce, where a team that has had their coach replaced plays the next game or three full of really inspired basketball? The Chicago Bulls, uh, did not experience that. Instead of bouncing to surprising heights upon firing Fred Hoiberg and replacing him with Jim Boylen, the Bulls crashed through the ground and descended straight to the fifth level of Hell.

The Bulls lost to the Celtics at home by 56 points on Saturday — tied for the worst home loss in NBA history — with the starters getting pulled for good in the third quarter down 22. You need to know that Boylen is a tough guy. He critiqued the Bulls’ conditioning upon getting the big job, and ran the team through two long practices with heavy conditioning already this week. He declared the team would have another one on Sunday, in the wake of a thoroughly embarrassing back-to-back.

The Bulls players, my friends, were not having it. So they basically mutinied, having a team meeting on Sunday and refusing to practice, with Zach LaVine and Justin Holiday leading the calls, per ESPN’s Malika Andrews. Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic reports that players were planning to no-show completely on Sunday in protest, but Lauri Markkanen and Robin Lopez got players to show up to the facility and have a meeting.

This is a bell you can’t unring, and the only thing that makes it highly likely that Boylen lasts all season is that the Bulls front office is guilty of gross incompetence and negligence. This is not how you build a young team, folks.

Pelicans 116, Pistons 108
Bucks 104, Raptors 99
Jazz 97, Spurs 110
Hornets 119, Knicks 107

On NBA TV:
Pelicans at Celtics, 7:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV
Heat at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV

Selections from League Pass:
Pistons at Sixers, 7 p.m. ET
Jazz at Thunder, 8 p.m. ET
Grizzlies at Nuggets, 9 p.m. ET
Timberwolves at Warriors, 10:30 p.m. ET

Full schedule here.

In B-Sides, Whitney Medworth declares that LeBron James is the NBA’s worst tweeter. My counterpoint is that he is also the author of the greatest tweet in NBA (and possibly Twitter) history.

The Lakers are trying to trade for Trevor Ariza. What is this, 2007?

Bucks beat the Raptors again. HMMMMM.

The Cavaliers made a George Hill trade with the Bucks on Friday, picking up draft picks and taking on contracts beyond this season. I wrote about how this affects Kevin Love’s future.

The Nuggets are incredible at suffering injuries at exactly the wrong time. Now it’s Paul Millsap’s toe.

Gregg Popovich is giving every kid at a San Antonio elementary school new sneakers. More info on the charity involved here.

This Rudy Gobert ejection is from last Thursday, but heavens it is good.

Penny Hardaway reflects on the time Michael Jordan wore his sneakers (and not Jordans, as he did every other night) in an NBA game.

Jason Smith was a minor piece in that George Hill deal — the Wizards flipped him for Sam Dekker to save on the luxury tax — but apparently this is like a real bummer for the Wizards locker room.

And finally: Isaac Lee and Jason Gallagher performed “Halleluka” at the Mavericks game Saturday. Luka Doncic scored 11 straight points to ice the Rockets late in the fourth. Our old friend Tim Cato has the full story at The Athletic. Wild, man.

Be excellent to each other.