When Fred Hoiberg tied Brad Stevens in playoff wins, it seemed like the whole world had been flipped upside down. Hoiberg has looked largely lost in his two seasons with the Bulls. They have no cohesive message they spout or plan, they don't really have an identity or certifiable plan. Their rotations have seemed flawed from the start. The Bulls roster was a badly-spaced mess and yet Hoiberg seemed to lean into their worst elements. 

But there it was, a 2-0 lead, in which Hoiberg had legitimately found ways to confound, frustrate, and overmatch the Celtics. Maybe Hoiberg had gotten a bad rap. Maybe Hoiberg deserved some credit for the plucky 8-seed taking it to the 1-seed Celtics. 

Two games later, after the Bulls' 104-95 loss to Boston?

Yeah, not so much. Fred Hoiberg looks very much like Fred Hoiberg again, and the Bulls look very much like the Bulls again.

In some ways, Hoiberg has been hamstrung. The loss of Rajon Rondo sunk so much of what was working for Chicago on both ends. He was defending with purpose, and his length and physicality was giving Boston's itty-bitty guards fits. On offense, he was dictating the pace and making sure things were organized, posting up and punishing Isaiah Thomas. From there, the blame falls on the front office. For years this team had a token reserve veteran point guard spot: D.J. Augustin, Aaron Brooks, Kirk Hinrich. This year, they never addressed it, even after Rajon Rondo was benched. They traded for Cameron Payne from the Thunder ... and Payne is in such disarray he was inactive in Game 4. 

And still, Hoiberg turned to his mishmash of not-ready-for-prime time point guards. Michael Carter-Williams and Jerian Grant were disasters for the second straight game, and yet, that was the Bulls' approach. Hoiberg eventually turned to Isaiah Canaan who gave them a third-quarter lift, but wound up having to go back to MCW, which sparked a 9-0 Celtics run to put the game out of reach. 

The answer is so painfully obvious, even if it might not work. Go without a point guard, play Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade at the guards; they initiate the offense and handle it the most anyway. If the issue is what that does to the bench units, well guess what? You're losing the bench units and the starting units right now and you can't bleed both. 

Without Rondo, the Celtics' three-guard lineup of Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart, none of whom scrape 6-foot-5, has been effective. That lineup was a disaster for most of the season because of what teams would do to it defensively, and yet the Bulls are completely incapable of hurting it because of their point guard play. 

No, Hoiberg doesn't have any good options. But throwing out guard after guard (without ever going to Denzel Valentine) to get eaten up the Celtics' masher is madness. 

Then after the game, Hoiberg goes on a random tirade about Isaiah Thomas carrying a piece of officiating minutia no one was impressed with. Whatever David Fizdale's "Take that for data!" speech was, this is the opposite of that. It was toothless and regressive, doing nothing to inspire confidence. It did not seem like a coach mad as hell who was not going to take it anymore. Instead, it seemed like an accountant complaining about formatting compliance. 

Hoiberg was rumored to be on the hot seat at the deadline as the front office sought to once again distance themselves from the failures they themselves have created. It's possible he finds himself back there if he does not adjust. The Bulls are the 8th seed. They should lose this series. They've put up more of a fight than most would expect. But if things are already stacked against the Celtics, Hoiberg is leaning as hard as he can into the pile, tipping things over in a cascade over his own team. Brad Stevens may be overrated considering his playoff success, but he's found answers and hasn't thrown bad answers at the wall time and time again. 

Hoiberg seems trapped in a loop he can't find a way out of, despite having every excuse to try tactics with little hope of success. The Bulls have nothing to lose and still Hoiberg has found ways to make things seem worse.