Protocols force first game postponement
For more than a month, the Spurs figured they had dodged a bullet as one of the few teams in the NBA to have not had a game postponed due to the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
That luck ran out Monday, an hour and a half before tipoff before their scheduled game in New Orleans.
Due to what the league called “ongoing contract tracing” within both clubs that left neither with the eight available players required to proceed, the NBA announced the last-minute postponement of the Spurs-pelicans game at the Smoothie King Center.
Having departed immediately Sunday night following a 121-101 victory over Washington at the AT&T Center, the Spurs were already in New Orleans when news of the cancellation came down.
It is unclear what positive COVID-19 tests might have triggered contact tracing among the teams that rendered Monday’s game unplayable.
As per league guidelines, Spurs players and staff members were tested Monday morning in New Orleans. In the Nba-mandated injury report released later that afternoon, there was no mention of any player in health and safety
protocols.
In fact, the one player who had been in protocols — reserve forward Drew Eubanks — had been cleared to play for the first time since Jan. 3.
Neither is it certain how many more games might be postponed as NBA and team doctors begin to work through the protocols.
The Wizards team the Spurs defeated Sunday was playing for the first time in 13 days, after having six consecutive games scuttled following an outbreak in their locker room.
Before leaving for New Orleans late Sunday night, at least one Spurs player expressed gratitude for the team having avoided a similar fate so far.
“We’re all being very careful and conscious of what’s going on in the world and trying to control what we can,” guard Lonnie Walker IV said. “Overall we’re thankful we’re able to continue to play the game we love so much.”
Less than 24 hours later, the Spurs’ season is on pause until enough players can be cleared to field a team again.