The Boston Celtics ruffled some feathers on Tuesday night when, in the spirit of the NBA In-Season Tournament, they decided to try and run up the score late in the game against the Chicago Bulls by fouling Andre Drummond on purpose despite already being up by 32 points. The Celtics needed to win by 23 points or more so they could usurp the Orlando Magic as the group leader and advance to the knockout stage, so Joe Mazzulla and company were simply doing what they felt was necessary.

Nevertheless, as understandable as the Celtics' decision to employ the Hack-a-Shaq strategy on Drummond was, it doesn't mean that it should sit well with the Bulls. Head coach Billy Donovan, in particular, wasn't exactly pleased that the Celtics put one of his players in such an embarrassing position with the game already squarely in Boston's favor.

“Play [your starters] all the way to the end. I got no problem with that. But I just thought it was putting Andre in a tough spot in a 30-point game. I didn't like that,” Donovan said in his postgame presser after the Bulls' 124-97 defeat to the Celtics, via Nick Raguz of Sports Illustrated's Bulls News.

Of course, Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics were merely playing the percentages; Andre Drummond, for his career, has shot 47.6 percent from the foul line, and the Celtics' gambit worked, as Drummond proceeded to miss five of his six attempts from the charity stripe.

At the end of the day, Billy Donovan is merely concerned for the Bulls' player optics, as he understands why the Celtics did what they did.

“Andre [Drummond] is a veteran guy. And I told [Mazzulla]: ‘What are we doing here?'” Donovan recalled.. “I get it on keeping your guys in, wanting to get in [the quarterfinals]. The league has made it a big deal. But for me, it was just the fouling. And Joe was great when I talked to him. They're trying to get to [Las] Vegas. It's just a tough situation. He has to coach his team and do what he feels is right.”

The Bulls have been dreadful as of late, and circumstances like these won't do much to give them hopes of making much of what is becoming a lost 2023-24 season for them.