Another three games called off due to COVID; 16 test positive

Contact tracing issues involving the Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards forced the NBA to postpone three more games Wednesday, raising the leaguewide total from this week alone to eight.

The NBA also revealed Wednesday that 16 players — by far the most in a one-week period since training camps started — returned positive COVID-19 tests between Jan. 6 and Tuesday. With 497 players tested, that reflects a positivity rate of 3.2%.

Phoenix’s home game Wednesday against Atlanta was called off, as was the Suns’ home game with Golden State on Friday. Also called: Friday’s game where the Wizards would have gone to Detroit. The reason in all three cases was the same, that the Suns and Wizards wouldn’t have enough players cleared to participate.

“Obviously, it’s not the typical NBA season that we’re all accustomed to,” Charlotte coach James Borrego said Wednesday. “But we’ll get through it.”

That Suns-Hawks game was the third on Wednesday’s schedule to be called, joining Utah at Washington and Orlando at Boston. It also marks the second consecutive time a team ran into issues after playing in Washington; the Heat lost eight players following their road game against the Wizards on Saturday.

“Not ideal,” Hawks guard Kevin Huerter tweeted, shortly after the postponement of the game in Phoenix was announced.

Also not playing Wednesday: Zion Williamson, ruled out by the New Orleans Pelicans for their game at the Clippers because of the league’s health and safety protocols. That doesn’t mean he tested positive and simply could mean he was potentially exposed to someone who has, or had an inconclusive test.

In the previous five weeks combined, only 15 players tested positive. But even the current week’s rate is well below what the league dealt with going into training camps, when 48 players tested positive in the week before practices could formally begin leaguewide.

“I’m not terribly upset about any of the things we have to do. It kind is what it is at this point and we’ll try to make the most of it and get through it,” Toronto guard Fred VanVleet said. “It does feel like it’s getting a bit much ... like trying to plug holes in a sinking boat.”

The latest postponements push the total this season to nine because of virus issues. The Suns, Hawks, Heat, Wizards and Sixers are among the teams dealing with significant roster depletion in recent days because of either positive tests, tracing — which indicates if someone has been in an unsafe amount of contact with a person who tested positive — or both.