The Bulls received a tanking warning after being embarrassed by the Celtics on Monday


It's tanking season, folks. The teams stuck in the basement of the standings have accepted their fate and embraced the spirit of the NBA tank-a-thon.

These teams are resting veterans, giving unproven players a large workload, and doing whatever it takes to be the best at, well, being the worst. One of them that has really just gone above and beyond, though, is the Chicago Bulls.

The Celtics matched up with this lottery-bound squad on Monday night and, at this point, you should all know how it played out. The Celtics went on a 19-0 run in the opening quarter to open up an early 26-5 lead and run away with the game. At one point, Boston held a 37-point lead. I mean, this was almost as lopsided as the UConn women's basketball game from that same night. Keep in mind, they had Shane Larkin starting at point guard in place of Kyrie Irving, and still managed to build their fourth largest lead ever under Brad Stevens:



Boston's win was so dominant, that the league basically sent a tanking warning to the Bulls following the performance, demanding that they stop resting healthy players:



Obviously, it likely wasn't this butt-whooping by the Celtics alone that led to the league sending out a warning. But it certainly helped - there are a lot of teams tanking out there right now, yet this is the first time the league has issued a warning like this all season. So, maybe it actually was a result of the atrocious effort by Chicago?

You know what, I've convinced myself that it was because of Boston. The Celtics are beating teams so bad these days that leagues are sending warnings out to their opponents telling them to do better! How about that!

At the end of the day, the Celtics had a great game without their All-Star guard suited up, and the struggling Bulls will now be required to play Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday more often going forward.



Follow Erik Johnson on Twitter: @erikjohnson32

Photo via Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
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