Not necessarily knocking on the guys sitting out if they truly can't go. However, I'd feel ripped off if I paid for tickets and saw the team was taking the L because it just figured why bother.
If Tatum isn't really sick, he should play. Say we beat them with our bench, that's a message sent.
I don't like taking an L willingly. Go down fighting.
That's just how it is honestly especially between January through early March.
I mean the C's were missing a handful of guys in both the Sixers and Hornets games last week, and tickets still cost $100 minimum for each of those games (including against a BAD Hornets team)
Obviously some guys like Smart are actually dealing with stuff, but some others were out with "soreness" or "illness". Not doubting the illness, but lets be real if this were an actual playoff game I think those guys would still play unless it was a terrible fever/illness. And it's not just the C's, if you look at injury reports around the league there's guys missing games due to "management", "non-covid illness", "general soreness" etc