Two more NBA games postponed
This was inevitable.
Monday’s Mavericks game against the Pelicans and Tuesday’s Celtics game against the Bulls were postponed because of the coronavirus. Many around the league now have to decide whether the current plan still works after at least a handful of teams — the Mavs, Celtics, Heat, 76ers and Nets — had players enter the COVID-19 health and safety protocol either for testing positive or being a close contact of someone who did just in the last two weeks.
“Damn,” Pelicans guard Josh Hart tweeted.
The players’ association and the NBA’s general managers were to meet to discuss modifying the existing protocol, the league said. The NBA board of governors will meet todayto discuss the protocol as well.
The Mavericks already had three players — Jalen Brunson, Josh Richardson, and Dorian Finney-Smith — on the COVID-19-related list and in quarantine. On Sunday, a fourth player, forward Maxi Kleber, was added to that list. Before the Mavericks game was called, ex-Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis, who has been out with a knee injury since the 2020 playoffs, was expected to make his season debut, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. More Mavs players reportedly tested positive on Monday, according to ESPN.
Sunday, the league postponed the Celtics’ game against the Heat. The Celtics were out Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Javonte Green, Semi Ojeleye, Tristan Thompson, Grant Williams and Robert Williams, all following the league’s health and safety protocol. They were also still out Kemba Walker (knee) and Romeo Langford (wrist) with injuries. The Heat, meanwhile, was out Avery Bradley, who was also following the protocol, and the team also had contact tracing issues prior to that game, according to the Associated Press, which reported the team was preparing to be without “at least five” players who have possibly been exposed to the virus through this week.
“We anticipated that there would be game postponements this season and planned the schedule accordingly,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement on Sunday. “There are no plans to pause the season, and we will continue to be guided by our medical experts and health and safety protocols.”
The Heat is still scheduled to play against the Sixers tonight.
Nets head coach Steve Nash was asked whether he thought it was realistic for the NBA to finish this season as-is since his team also had a coronavirus scare when 76ers guard Seth Curry had a test result come back positive while he was on the bench in the first quarter of the Nets’ victory over the Sixers on Jan. 7. The Nets also just got Kevin Durant back after he was in the protocol for seven days after being a close contact of someone who received a positive test.
“I think the league is doing the best they can,” Nash said Monday. “It is an awful world right now. We’re all facing this, whether you’re an NBA team, player, front office, or you’re somebody who works in the industry. It’s an awful world, a scary world, we’re losing lives every single day in big numbers.
The Sixers still played the Nuggets on Saturday with seven players (the minimum eight were in attendance), as the rest followed along with additional testing, quarantining and the contact tracing process after Curry’s diagnosis.