Virus sidelines Raptors coaches, Siakam

The Toronto Raptors were without six members of their coaching staff, including head coach Nick Nurse, and starting forward Pascal Siakam for their Feb. 26 game against Houston in accordance with the NBA’s health and safety protocols regarding the coronavirus.

Assistant coach Sergio Scariolo was promoted to coach the team’s game in Tampa, Florida, against the

Rockets. The Raptors said Nurse and the remainder of his staff will continue to work remotely.

Scariolo had been away from the Raptors while coaching Spain in FIBA’s EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers and just cleared quarantine Friday. The Raptors were considering other options if he was not cleared to coach in time, including bringing their G League staff from that league’s bubble season, currently going on in Lake Buena Vista,

Florida — about an hour from Tampa. The Raptors lost an assistant coach last weekend when Chris Finch was hired as Minnesota’s head coach.

“I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands of games he’s been a head coach,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said about Scariolo. “But it’s unique, and he acknowledged that much, especially under the circumstances.”

Scariolo has extensive experience as a head coach, winning championships of leagues in Italy, Spain and Russia, plus has been Spain’s national coach — helping that team win medals at the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympics, plus capture the Basketball World Cup title in 2019.

Siakam was listed as out about two hours before the game, indicating that he either has a testing issue or a contact tracing issue. He played Wednesday night in Miami.