Nba Covid, new scare: Okc-Phila jumps an hour and a half from the duo ball

Oklahoma City and Philadelphia were already on the court, warming up for their challenge that should have started at one Italian time. And which instead turned into the 14th NBA game of 2020-21 postponed for Covid: the Sixers, due to the tracking, do not have the minimum number of 8 players to be able to take the field.

the case

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Philadelphia had already experienced a Covid scare 10 days ago, when Seth Curry had tested positive (with the news made known during the first quarter of the Brooklyn race) and had sent 5 other companions to quarantine. The Sixers had still managed to take the field in the next match, that of January 9 against Denver, but they had played in 7 with the injured Mike Scott considered available only to be able to reach the minimum number of 8. From that day 13 have been postponed. leave for Covid. This time, however, there would not be a new case among the Sixers players: the tracking started after the positivity of Jonas Valanciunas of Memphis, Philadelphia opponent in the Saturday game played in the city of Elvis.

recidivist

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The Nba, as always, prefers caution, because the health of the players comes first. This is why the Sixers were stopped, immediately starting the same contact tracing process that Memphis will also have to undergo, which on Monday should host Phoenix in one of the 9 matches of Martin Luther King Day. Philadelphia was the first team hit by the wave of Covid last week, but curiously this is the first game that the Sixers fail to play. Phila only had 9 players available last Monday in Atlanta and the minimum number of 8 on Tuesday with Miami, before climbing back to 14 on Thursday for the second confrontation with the Heat. Now this new stop, which could again decimate Rivers’ team.

protocol

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The NBA subjects players to two daily tests: a quick swab in the morning and a PCR test in the evening. Tracking, a procedure conducted by a pool of doctors, serves to determine players who have come into close contact with positive teammates or opponents. It is also based on Second Spectrum technology, used to track the position of players on the pitch, as well as on the study of camera images and interviews with players. Prudence and caution are the two mantras that guide him. Despite this new postponement, however, the season goes on: a stop, even temporary, and the return to the bubble like the one in which 2020-21 was concluded are not taken into consideration for now. On Tuesday, the league and the players agreed on an even stricter protocol, which includes, among other things, mandatory masks and limits the movements of the players, practically reducing to isolation at home or in the hotel.