The Boston Celtics would have an extremely small team for the game against the Miami Heat on Sunday night. In yours official injury report, the Celtics listed a total of nine players as eliminated against the Heat. Seven of those absences – Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Tristan Thompson, Semi Ojeleye, Grant Williams, Robert Williams and Javonte Green – are due to players being placed on the league’s health and safety protocols amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Tatum and Robert Williams tested positive for the virus. Two other players – Kemba Walker and Romeo Langford – were eliminated due to injury problems.
With all these players out, the Celtics would have only eight players available to face the Heat on Sunday. These eight players are Tacko Fall, Aaron Nesmith, Payton Pritchard, Marcus Smart, Daniel Theis, Tremont Waters, Carsen Edwards and Jeff Teague.
While the league was planning to allow the Celtics to go ahead and play tonight’s game with that list of eight players, Atlético’s Shams Charania is reporting that the game was postponed after an unidentified Heat player returned an inconclusive COVID-19 test leaving Miami with less than the eight mandatory league players available to compete due to contact tracking.
Shortly after the Charania and Wojnarowski reports, the league issued a statement officially announcing the postponement, noting how the Heat did not have enough players to form a list of eight players due to contact tracking.
“The National Basketball Association game scheduled for tonight between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics at TD Garden has been postponed according to the league’s health and safety protocols.
Because of the continued tracking of contact with the Heat, the team does not have the eight players required for the league available to proceed with tonight’s game against the Celtics. “
Despite the postponement, ESPN.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the league has no plans to pause the season at this time, although lists throughout the league are dwindling because of the COVID-19 protocols in several places.