NBA postpones Spurs at Cavs game Feb. 17

The game between the San Antonio Spurs and Cavaliers Feb. 17was postponed due to four positive tests.

The game between the San Antonio Spurs and Cavaliers that was scheduled for 8 p.m. Feb. 17 has been postponed because of four positive tests for COVID-19 within the Spurs organization.

The NBA then moved a game between the Cavs and Denver Nuggets originally scheduled for the second half of the season to 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

“Because of ongoing contact tracing within the Spurs, the team does not have the leaguerequired eight available players to proceed with the scheduled game against the Cavaliers,” the NBA announced on Feb. 16 in a statement.

The Cavaliers have now had three games postponed because their opponent had issues with the novel coronavirus. Two road games with the Washington Wizards on Jan. 17 and 18 had to be postponed.

The makeup dates for those games have not been announced, but they will be made up during the second half of the season, as will the game with the Spurs.

The schedule for the second half of the season, which begins March 11, will be announced within the next couple weeks. The league chose to announce the 2020-21 schedule in two installments to create room for makeup dates in the second half of the season.

The San Antonio game with the Knicks on Feb. 20 in New York and the game Feb. 22 at Indiana have already been postponed.

The postponement of the game Feb. 17 might come at a good time for the Cavaliers. They arrived in Cleveland early on Feb. 16 weary and in need of rest after a brutal five-game road trip. They lost three straight home games before heading west.

“We’re still figuring it out,” Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said on Zoom Feb. 15 after a 129-98 loss at Golden State. “We have a lot of young guys we have to teach and help improve.

“We have to be a more physical basketball team. We’re playing a lot of small guys, but that doesn’t excuse us from being more physical. We can do a much better job of protecting the paint. Our defense has gotten really spread out and not being in our help spots to protect the paint.

The Cavs’ current eightgame losing streak is their longest since they lost eight straight from Nov. 25-Dec. 11 in 2019. The average margin of defeat during the current skid is 22 points.

The Nuggets handed the Cavs their worst loss of the season, 133-95, in Denver on Feb. 10.