The NBA officially has a problem on its hands, and the Celtics are a big part of it.
The league announced Monday that Tuesday’s game between Boston and the Chicago Bulls has been postponed to a later date amid rising COVID-19 concerns.
The Celtics, who also saw Sunday’s scheduled game with the Miami Heat postponed, recently had two players (Jayson Tatum and Robert Williams) test positive for the coronavirus.
Boston would not have had the required minimum of eight players available to play against the Bulls, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Celtics would have had eight players available Sunday night against Miami. The Heat would not have met the required minimum, and thus the game was postponed.
The NBA also postponed Monday’s scheduled game between the Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans with Dallas unable to meet the minimum roster requirement. The Mavericks on Monday reportedly were forced to put at least five additional players into their COVID-19 protocol.
Here’s everything you need to know:
The NBA has not announced make-up dates for either Celtics-Bulls or Mavs-Pelicans. The Miami-Boston game also has not been rescheduled.
The Celtics are expected to be without Tatum for roughly two weeks as he isolates after his positive COVID-19 test, which was confirmed by a subsequent test.
The NBA now has postponed four games this season due to COVID-19 concerns. A late-December game between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder also was moved to a later date.
It’s worth noting a majority of the players ruled unavailable by the aforementioned clubs were done so due to contact tracing and safety protocols. Of course, there is a chance additional players test positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the coming days.
The NBA currently has no plans to pause its season, according to Wojnarowski. League general managers planned to hold a conference call sometime Monday to discuss the myriad of issues the NBA currently faces.
