The Boston Celtics would be extremely quick on Sunday night for their game against the Miami Heat. On them official injury report, the Celtics listed a total of nine players against the Heat. Seven of these absences – Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Tristan Thompson, Semi Oeieye, Grant Williams, Robert Williams and Javonte Green – are due to players being placed in the league’s health and safety protocols amid the ongoing COVID-19 -pandemic. Tatum and Robert Williams apparently both tested positive for the virus. Two other players – Kemba Walker and Romeo Langford – would be out due to injury problems.
With all of these players on the scoresheet, the Celtics would have had just eight players available on Sunday to adjust against the Heat. The 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 move forward and play tonight’s game with that eight – man list, Shams Charania from The Athletic reported that the game was postponed after an unidentified Heat player returned an unconvincing COVID-19 Test, which prompted Miami with less than eight available players in the league to compete due to contact detection.
Shortly after reports from Charania and Wojnarowski, the league issued a statement officially announcing the postponement, pointing out that the Heat do not have enough players to place an eight-man roster due to contact detection.
The National Basketball Association game scheduled for tonight between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics in TD Garden has been postponed in accordance with the league’s health and safety protocols.
Due to the ongoing contact with the Heat, the team does not have the eight available players the league needs to continue tonight’s game against the Celtics. ‘
Mike Bass, spokesman for the league, also presented the following statement to Sopan Deb of The New York Times after the announcement that the game between Miami and Boston would be postponed.
“We expected the game to be postponed this season and have planned the season accordingly. There is no plan to interrupt the season. We will continue to be guided by our medical experts and our health and safety protocols.”
Despite the postponement, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reports that the league is not currently planning to interrupt the season, although the rankings in the league are thinner due to COVID-19 protocols in several places.