The Celtics are looking to bag another win and expand on their winning streak from 7 to 8 as they visit the Pistons tonight at the Lille Caesars Arena. Although the team has been pretty healthy for the majority of the season, injuries are now starting to creep up on them.

As per the latest injury reports, 6 of the Celtics’ players are in troublesome waters. Jrue Holiday is reportedly “out” tonight because of his sprained AC joint. This game will be the third time he will not play. Then again, seeing as how the Boston Celtics are going up against the 14th-seeded Detroit Pistons tonight, the team might find it reasonable to load-manage two of their star players. Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porziņģis are on the injury report for the Pistons game. The last time the two met, the Cs crushed ‘Motown’ 119-94. After Friday’s game, the Cs will go for a back-to-back with the Chicago Bulls on Saturday. Hence, resting big men wouldn’t be unreasonable.

Apart from Holiday, Brown, and Porziņģis, we also have Sam Hauser listed as “probable” because of a left ankle sprain, and Al Horford too finds himself to be “questionable” for tonight because of his big toe sprain.

There is also a likelihood of Tatum sitting out, too. It will probably be a game-time decision against the Pistons. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he sits through the game since the Celtics have been able to figure things out without him, evidently seen just a few days ago.

Despite the injury report for Boston being lengthy, they can afford to sit their best players out to obviously save them for a potential championship run in the future. The fact that they’re willing to play without the best of their players against the Pistons will probably still give them enough chance to beat them tonight.

Load management continues to be a pain point with the league

Recently, Jayson Tatum spoke his mind about load management. He was adamant about not sitting out unless there were health concerns. The Celtics’ star player has no plans of disappointing everyone out there wearing his No. 0 jersey. With the league’s new rules about not resting superstars, unless it’s absolutely required, primarily targeting All-Star level players, there continues to be confusion in figuring out where to draw the line.

While the NBA does not force players with injuries to play through them, the basic principle here is that if a player is healthy, they play. Of course, there are more subtle nuances to them. But with so many aspects to factor into when making a decision, it’s only natural that there might be a conflict of interest.

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Applying this to the Celtics’ case; they are in a position to rest their injured star players without it having any effect on their standings. And while Tatum has shown remarkable durability, the question whether superstars should further risk a greater injury with no less than a month into playoffs is something everyone will have to think about. Carefully.

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