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Tim BontempsESPN
BOSTON – The NBA announced Tuesday afternoon that Wednesday night’s game between the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic at the TD Garden has been postponed because the Celtics cannot present the minimum eight players due to players entering the league safety and health protocols.
Sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the status of Friday’s game between the same two teams here was still unclear.
The announcement marks the third straight game the Celtics have postponed, after Sunday’s game between the Celtics and Miami Heat and Tuesday night’s game in Chicago against the Bulls. Sunday’s game was postponed because the Heat were unable to feature eight players, while the last two were because Boston fell below that threshold.
Five NBA games have been postponed so far this season: all three with the Celtics, the game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Dallas Mavericks that was to be played Monday night, and the game between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder on December 23rd.
Last Friday, Boston announced that three players – Robert Williams, Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson – would be out of that night’s game against the Washington Wizards due to entry into NBA safety and health protocols. On Saturday afternoon, the team added four more names to its injury report for the same reason: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Semi Ojeleye and Javonte Green. On Sunday afternoon, all four had been included in the list due to the protocols.
Since Sunday night, the team has not submitted any updated injury reports, but that number has clearly surpassed seven players since then. A source said Boston will not have to release another injury report until 5 p.m. the day before its next scheduled game, meaning no official updates will have to be made until Thursday at 5 p.m., presuming Friday’s game against Orlando will remain on schedule.
The NBA has not established an established criterion for contact tracking situations, given the uncertain and evolving nature of the pandemic. Based on the time other players, including Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, have lost due to contact tracking, which appears to be about a week, the earliest the Celtics could recover any of their players would be Thursday or Friday.
Boston is far from the only team that deals with this. Four other teams (the Heat, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Chicago Bulls) have at least four players listed in the league’s safety and health protocols. The Heat and Sixers will play Tuesday night in Philadelphia and Miami will have eight or nine players, depending on the state of Meyers Leonard (shoulder), while Philadelphia will have ten after Ben Simmons qualifies as likely to play later. of losing the prior two games by stiffness / swelling with the left knee.