Sunday night’s game postponed due to contact tracing
Sunday’s game between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics at TD Garden was postponed due to issues related to the NBA’s coronavirus protocols.
The Heat earlier Sunday announced that guard Avery Bradley had been ruled out due to NBA “health and safety protocols.”
That set in motion the NBA’s contact- tracing program, which could lead to a required absence of one week or longer for any player deemed to have been in close proximity to someone testing positive for COVID- 19. A player testing positive likely would miss at least two weeks.
Two hours before Sunday’s scheduled 7 p. m. tipoff in Boston, the NBA issued a release that read:
“The National Basketball Association game scheduled for tonight between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics at TD Garden has been postponed in accordance with the league’s Health and Safety Protocols.
“Because of ongoing contact tracing with the Heat, the team does not have the league- required eight available players to proceed with tonight’s game against the Celtics.”
The result of testing could leave the Heat tenuously close to the NBA requirement of having at least eight available players on game nights. The Heat are carrying 17 players on their roster.
In addition to the Heat’s situation, the Celtics, with coronavirus issues of their own, had been down to eight available players for Sunday’s game, prior to the postponement. Nine Boston players on Sunday afternoon were officially listed by the Celtics as out.
It is the second NBA game postponed due to pandemic protocols this season, following a Dec. 23 game the opening week between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The NBA purposely delayed releasing the second half of the regular- season schedule in order to accommodate potential postponements such as Sunday’s.
The Heat remained overnight in Boston, awaiting further medical and league guidance.
“We anticipated that there would be game postponements this season and planned this season accordingly,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass told The New York Times. “There are no plans to pause the season. We will continue to be guided by our medical experts and our health and safety protocols.”
Unlike the completion of last season, when the NBA played in a quarantine type of bubble setting at Disney World, games have been played at arenas this season, with players either at home or hotels on nights off.
“You are starting to see what is going on in our country directly affect the NBA, because we are no longer in that safety net of a bubble,” Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone said before his team’s Sunday game against the New York Knicks.
Sunday’s Heat- Celtics situation came two games after the Heat played at AmericanAirlines Arena against the Celtics, with Boston forward Jayson Tatum subsequently testing positive for COVID- 19, and a game after the Heat defeated the Wizards on Saturday night, with Washington guard Bradley Beal missing that game due to contact tracing regarding Tatum.
The Heat are next scheduled to play Tuesday and Thursday in Philadelphia, with the 76ers dealing with their own pandemic- related absences. Those two games, as well as the Heat’s schedule through next weekend, including a Saturday game against the Detroit Pistons at AmericanAirlines Arena, could now be in doubt.
For the Heat and the rest of the NBA, the concern remains being able to field competitive lineups amid the pandemic.
“It ’s crazy,” Heat forward Jimmy Butler said of t he increased absences around the league due to the pandemic. “But we still got to out there and compete. If our name’s called and we can’t play, we just can’t play. But on our team nobody is going out there really, with the COVID now.
“I like everybody trying to stay safe and keep it away from as many people as you can. It’s crazy to hear how many guys got to be quarantined from how many these days, 17 or 14, whatever the case may be.”
Now it is an issue that could particularly hit home for the Heat.
“I see it, for sure,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said of the diminished rosters around the league. “It’s just crazy, the times we’re living in right now, with everything that’s going on. It’s a crazy season.
“My first year, my rookie year, we had a bubble, and my second year, now we’re kind of in a bubble but not in a bubble at the same time. So it’s just crazy, that’s really all I can say. But I am keeping up with it.”
Several Heat players already have dealt with COVID- 19, including Bam Adebayo, Kendrick Nunn and Herro. That had both Adebayo and Nunn late to arrive to the NBA’s quarantine bubble setting last summer at Disney World.
“But that’s the times that we’re living in right now,” Herro said. “Everyone’s got to stay safe, wear their mask and just hopefully not get too close to anyone on the court who may have the virus.”
In addition to Bradley, the Heat had listed four others players on their injury report for the since- postponed game: Goran Dragic, Questionable, Right Knee Soreness; Meyers Leonard, Questionable, Left Shoulder Strain; Kelly Olynyk, Questionable, Left Groin Contusion.; Gabe Vincent, Probable, Right Knee Soreness.
To a degree, the Heat’s situation initially paled in comparison to where Boston stood.
The Celtics’ injury report prior to Sunday’s postponement: Jaylen Brown, Health & Safety Protocols, Out; Javonte Green, Health & Safety Protocols, Out; Romeo Langford, Right Wrist Surgery, Out; Semi Ojeleye, Health & Safety Protocols, Out; Jayson Tatum, Health & Safety Protocols, Out; Tristan Thompson, Health & Safety Protocols, Out; Kemba Walker, Left Knee Recovery, Out; Grant Williams, Health & Safety Protocols, Out; Robert Williams, Health & Safety Protocols, Out.
The only available players for the Celtics would have been Carson Edwards, Tacko Fall
Aaron Nesmith, Payton Pritchard, Marcus Smart, Jeff Teague, Daniel Theis, Tremont Waters.