Virtually everyone on the team was shocked when Carlos Boozer didn’t play at all for the last 14 minutes of Wednesday night’s 96-94 loss to the Nets:
“We were surprised,” Derrick Rose said. “But we’re not going to try to coach. We’re going to do our jobs and that’s to play. We’re going to leave the subbing up to (Thibodeau).”
And from Boozer himself:
“Yeah, absolutely,” Boozer said when asked if it was frustrating to sit. “You have to talk to Thibs about that. That was his decision.”
KC Johnson’s Tribune article says it may have been because of a couple of defensive lapses on Boozer’s part, allowing New Jersey’s Kris Humphries to get past him for a couple of easy dunks.
Thibodeau claimed it was due to “matchups,” but putting your main rebounding force, and one of your leading scorers, on the bench for an entire quarter when you’re down double digits doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sometimes coaches do this as a “teachable moment”, but it doesn’t seem logical when it possibly costs you a victory in a winnable road game.
Sounds like it might have been a “teachable moment” for coach Thibodeau, too. The Bulls face the 76ers in Philadelphia on Friday.