Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg is as mild-mannered as they come most nights. But after the Bulls fell 104-95 to the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of their playoff series, Hoiberg was unusually heated.

The referees were the target of Hoiberg’s ire, and he will certainly draw a fine for his comments. Hoiberg complained that the officiating crew repeatedly failed to call a dribbling violation on guard Isaiah Thomas.

Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg complains that referees allow Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas to “discontinue [his] dribble on every possession”… pic.twitter.com/CgvsCb13Ic — Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) April 24, 2017

“When you’re allowed to discontinue your dribble on every possession, [Thomas is] impossible to guard,” Hoiberg said. “When you’re able to put your hand under the ball and take two or three steps and put it back down, it’s impossible to guard in those situations.”

The NBA provides examples of the discontinued dribble violation on their video rulebook website with the following explanation:

Dribblers may not have any part of their hand under the ball, bringing their dribble to a pause, before continuing on with their dribble. On this play, the offensive player brings part of his hand under the ball, bringing the ball to a pause in an attempt to freeze the defender, before continuing on with his dribble. This is a violation.

Thomas’ hesitation dribble move may technically be a violation, but the rule is rarely enforced.

“I don’t think I’ve been called for that one time this year, so I don’t think that will change,” Thomas said. “I can’t recall one time this season where I’ve been called for a carry.”

Thomas’ memory might be a little off. It appears that he was called for the violation three times this season.

Isaiah Thomas has been called for carrying 3 times all season, per @bball_ref. (Search for “discontinued dribble”) https://t.co/15R2Pj9VMU — Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) April 24, 2017

It’s my best guess is that Hoiberg took umbrage at Thomas’ hesitation dribble. It’s a technique that Thomas goes to frequently to get separation on his drives.

You can judge for yourself whether Thomas places his hand underneath the ball or brings the ball to a pause on the move in these two clips.





Thomas, naturally, disputed Hoiberg’s allegations.

“That’s not the reason I’m an impossible cover,” he said. “I’ve been dribbling that way my whole life.”

Thomas has a point. There were plenty of other times that he was torching the Bulls’ defense without resorting to his hesitation dribble. Isaiah Canaan played nice defense and had some deflections on Thomas, but more often than not Thomas simply blew right past him.

For Hoiberg to state that Thomas used the dribble move on every possession was a gross exaggeration, although Thomas did score very frequently off it. The bigger issue for the Bulls is that they didn’t have any quality defenders to stick on Thomas. Hoiberg sounded frustrated, more than anything, after the Bulls squandered two chances to win a third game in the series at home. Now the Celtics have home court advantage again with two of the possible three remaining home games.

It’s not a shock, but the Bulls got no production from Michael Carter-Williams or Jerian Grant for the second consecutive game. Rajon Rondo won’t be able to play any of the remaining games in the series while he recovers from a broken thumb. While Canaan came in and gave them a nice boost off the bench, he’s not known as a good defender and he likely won’t be able to slow down Thomas for the rest of the series. Maybe the Bulls should activate Cameron Payne? Nah, let’s not get crazy.

The Bulls didn’t have an answer for the Celtics’ pick-and-roll actions with Thomas, and this latest desperation ref-baiting move by Hoiberg isn’t likely to solve their problems. Hoiberg’s players seemed to enjoy the support, which is nice, but he has to come up with a better solution for Game 5 on Wednesday.