This may be an unsustainable situation for the NBA, but at least for now the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat will postpone tonight’s game due to the Heat not having enough players able to play after an unexpected inconclusive test made moving forward with eight cleared players impossible, per the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach.
The Celtics, for their part, would have had just eight players available to play for largely the same reason. With both Jayson Tatum and Robert Williams III out with positive COVID-19 tests and Jaylen Brown, Javonte Green, Semi Ojeleye, Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson in the league’s health and safety protocols — to say nothing of injured Kemba Walker and Romeo Langford — the game had already been hanging by a thread.
ESPN Sources: While the Celtics-Heat game has been postponed tonight, the NBA has no plans to pause the season despite thinning rosters because of COVID-19 protocols in several places.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 10, 2021
It may be that the league needs to re-evaluate the protocols it is using regarding potential transmission of the viral malady, particularly in light of a new, more contagious strain beginning to circulate in several NBA markets.
Stay tuned for more information on this developing issue across the league.
