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Tim BontempsESPN
BOSTON – The NBA announced Tuesday afternoon that Wednesday night’s game between the Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic at TD Garden has been postponed because the Celtics cannot place a minimum of eight players due to the entry of players into the protocols league health and safety.
Sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN that the status of Friday’s game between the same two teams here was not yet clear.
The announcement marks the third consecutive game that the Celtics postponed, after Sunday’s game here between the Celtics and the Miami Heat and Tuesday’s game in Chicago against the Bulls. Sunday’s game was postponed because the Heat failed to place eight players, while the previous two were because Boston fell below that threshold.
Five NBA games have been postponed so far this season – the three involving the Celtics, the game between New Orleans Pelicans and the Dallas Mavericks that was scheduled for Monday night and the game between Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder on December 23.
Last Friday, Boston announced that three players – Robert Williams, Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson – would all be out of the game that night against the Washington Wizards due to entering the NBA Health and Safety Protocols. On Saturday afternoon, the team added four more names to the injury report for the same reason: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Semi Ojeleye and Javonte Green. As of Sunday afternoon, all four were also listed as out because of the protocols.
The team has not provided an updated injury report since Sunday night, but that number has clearly increased beyond the seven players since then. A source said Boston will not need to release another injury report until 5 pm the day before the next scheduled game, meaning that no official updates need to be provided before 5 pm Thursday, assuming that Friday’s game against Orlando continue scheduled.
The NBA has not established a defined criterion for contact tracking situations, given the uncertain and evolving nature of the pandemic. Based on the amount of time other players – including Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant – wasted due to contact tracking, which appears to be about a week, the sooner that the Celtics could have any of their players back it would be Thursday or Friday.
Boston is far from the only team to deal with this. Four other teams – the Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls – have at least four players that are listed in the league’s Health and Safety Protocols. The Heat and Sixers are scheduled to play Tuesday night in Philadelphia, with Miami having eight or nine players, depending on the status of Meyers Leonard (shoulder), while Philadelphia will have 10 after Ben Simmons was listed as likely to play after losing the previous game two games due to stiffness / swelling of the left knee.