Boston Celtics’ third game in a row suspended due to COVID-19

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 could not field the eight-man minimum due to the entry of players in league health and safety protocols.

Sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the status of Friday’s game between the same two teams here is still unclear.

The announcement marks the third straight game the Celtics have postponed, following 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 couldn’t field eight players, while the last two were postponed because Boston dived below that threshold.

Five NBA games have been postponed so far this season – all three involving the Celtics, the game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks that was scheduled to be played Monday night, and the game between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder on 23 Dec.

Last Friday, Boston announced that three players – Robert Williams, Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson – will all be sitting out of tonight’s game against the Washington Wizards due to their entry into NBA health and safety protocols. On Saturday afternoon, the team added four more names to their injury report for the same reason: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Semi Ojeleye and Javonte Green. By Sunday afternoon, all four had also been listed as out of service due to protocols.

The team have not provided an updated injury report since Sunday night, but that number has clearly exceeded those seven players since then. A source said Boston won’t need to release another injury report until 5 p.m. the day before their next scheduled game, meaning no official update is due until 5 p.m. Thursday, in assuming Friday’s game against Orlando remains on the schedule.

The NBA has not defined defined criteria for contact tracing 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 the contact tracing, which appears to last around a week, as soon as possible for the Celtics to recover one of their players would be 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 as part of the league’s health and safety protocols. The Heat and Sixers are set to play in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, with Miami having eight or nine players, depending on Meyers Leonard (shoulder) status, while Philadelphia will have 10 after Ben Simmons was listed as likely to play after missing the previous. two games due to the stiffness / swelling of the left knee.