NBA postpones Tuesday’s Celtics-Bulls game over coronavirus concerns

The game Tuesday night between the Bulls and Celtics at the United Center was postponed because of coronavirus protocols.

The announcement was made Monday afternoon. The game between the Mavericks and Pelicans also was postponed.

It was the first Bulls game to be postponed this season and the first since last March, when the entire league shut down. Boston had nine players unavailable, seven because of COVID-19 protocols.

The Bulls probably weren’t complaining about the news.

Chandler Hutchison and Tomas Satoransky tested positive almost two weeks ago, and Lauri Markkanen and Ryan Arcidiacono have been out because of contact tracing, but at least they’ve been getting in some league-approved individual workouts.

The hope was to get Markkanen and Arcidiacono back with the team at some point this week, but the schedule was going to make it difficult. That’s not the case any longer.

With no game Tuesday, the Bulls won’t play until they travel to Oklahoma City on Friday. That seems like plenty of time to get Markkanen and Arcidiacono reacclimated and make sure their conditioning is where it needs to be.

As far as the bigger picture for the league, a meeting between the NBA and the players’ union was scheduled for Monday to help the sides figure out the best steps moving forward.

The Celtics-Bulls game has no official makeup date.