Contact tracing for the Phoenix Suns and Washingon Wizards forced the NBA to postpone three more games on Wednesday, bringing this week’s total to eight in the league.
The NBA also revealed Wednesday that 16 players – by far the most in a week since practice camps opened – tested positive for coronavirus on diagnostic tests from January 6 to Tuesday.
Analyzes were carried out on 497 players, so the number of positives constitutes a proportion of 3.2%.
In the previous five weeks combined, only 15 players tested positive. But even the current rate is below what the NBA had to grapple with at the start of camps, when 48 infected players were detected before training could formally begin throughout the league.
Wednesday’s game, in which Phoenix would host Atlanta, was postponed, as was the game scheduled for Friday, in which the Suns would host Golden State. The game on Friday, in which the Wizards were going to play at home in Detroit, was also postponed.
In all cases, the reason was that the Suns and Wizards did not have enough players in a position to participate.
“Obviously, this is not the typical NBA season we’re used to,” Charlotte coach James Borrego said Wednesday. “But we will move on.”
The duels of Utah in Washington and Orlando in Boston had already been postponed. It is also the second time that a team has faced problems due to the pandemic after playing in Washington; the Miami Heat lost eight players to COVID after visiting the Wizards on Saturday.
“Not ideal,” Hawks guard Kevin Huerter tweeted after announcing the postponement of the game in Phoenix, the sixth in the league since Sunday, and the seventh this season due to the virus.
The Philadelphia Suns, Hawks, Heat, Wizards and 76ers have been left with decimated rosters in recent days either through positive cases or contact tracing.
It is not ruled out that other matches have to be postponed.
Phoenix will be home to Golden State on Friday and Indiana on Saturday. Washington is due to visit Detroit on Friday. Celtics hope to be local to Magic on Friday; If that duel can be played, it will be Boston’s first in a week.
On Tuesday, the league and the players union announced changes to the sanitary protocol that will apply “for at least the next two weeks.” Players and staff must remain in their residences when they are in their cities and will not be able to leave their hotels when they are on tour, with training and games as an exception.
Additional measures adopted Tuesday include a new rule prohibiting pre-game meetings in the dressing rooms that last more than 10 minutes. And everyone present at those meetings will have to wear a mask. Meetings in larger spaces, such as a court, should be held in compliance with social distancing and wearing masks.
The postponed games could be rescheduled for the second half of the campaign. The league released a schedule that covers through March 4 in anticipation of the possibility of postponements.
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