Tonight’s game between the Bulls and Raptors has been postponed, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The decision was made because Toronto doesn’t have the league minimum of eight players available due to positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing (Twitter link).
The Raptors are dealing with a virus outbreak that affected Pascal Siakam and most of their coaching staff for Friday’s game. At least one coach reportedly tested positive, while the rest are in quarantine. Siakam, who reportedly returned an inconclusive rapid test on Friday, is expected to be out of action through the All-Star break, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Toronto has two games remaining before the break, and both may be in jeopardy considering the league’s policy of being cautious amid coronavirus outbreaks. The Raptors are scheduled to host the Pistons on Tuesday and the Celtics on Thursday.
The Bulls shouldn’t be affected, as they just arrived in Florida on Saturday, tweets K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports. They will return home for Monday’s game against the Nuggets. It remains to be seen if today’s news will have any effect on the Rockets, Toronto’s opponent on Friday, who are scheduled to face the Grizzlies tonight.
The Raptors had been one of just four teams without a postponement during the first half of the season, tweets Tim Bontemps of ESPN. The only remaining unaffected teams are the Lakers, Clippers, and Nets.
Tonight’s game is the 34th to be postponed since the season began, and the 30th caused by the virus. Three others were due to harsh weather in Texas last week and one was a scheduling choice to accommodate a makeup game. You can see the complete list here.
Wack.
Is it weird that LA is the COVId capital of the US and neither team has had any issues? I guess better leadership on those teams.
Perhaps the league puts more safeguards and accommodations toward its most precious content. It already assigns them better referees.
LeBron locks all the Lakers in his basement and feeds them fish heads. That’s why they don’t catch Rona
@ bigeasye And you now just came up with this grand plan because it’s the raptors. Other teams had to cancel games and you never had this super outlook before right??? Interesting!
I know you have to have a minimum number of players active for a game to be played… Do you have to have a minimum number of coaches? Would that be as low as one?
They probably can have the towel boy coach.
And I had in my mind that the raptors were the only team so far to not have to have a game cancelled…oh well, hope everyone is cleared soon enough.