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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 TD Garden has been postponed because the Celtics cannot win at least eight players due to players entering the league’s health and safety 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 consecutive game the Celtics have postponed, after Sunday’s game here between the Celtics and the Miami Heat and Tuesday night’s game in Chicago against the Bulls. Sunday’s game was postponed because the Heat failed to launch eight players, while the last 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 the New Orleans Pelicans and the Dallas Mavericks that was scheduled to be played Monday night, and the game between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder on December 23.
Last Friday, Boston announced that three players – Robert Williams, Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson – will all be out of the game that night against the Washington Wizards due to joining 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. By Sunday afternoon, all four had also been included in the list because of the protocols.
The team did not provide an updated report of injuries on Sunday night, but this number has clearly increased over these seven players since then. A source said Boston will not have to release another injury report until 5 p.m., a day before its next scheduled game, which means no official update should be offered until 5 p.m. Thursday. : 00, assuming Friday’s game against Orlando remains on schedule.
The NBA has not established an established criterion for follow-up situations, given the uncertain and evolving nature of the pandemic. Based on the time that other players – including Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant – missed due to tracking contacts, which appears to be about a week, the earliest the Celtics could recover any of their players would be on Thursday or Friday.
Boston is far from the only team dealing with this. Four other teams – the Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls – have at least four players listed in the league’s Health and Safety Protocols. The Heat and Sixers will play in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, with Miami having either 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 missed the previous two games due to stiffness / swelling in his left knee.