The NBA has postponed Thursday’s matchup between the Hornets and Lakers due to the ongoing wildfires in the Los Angeles area, the league announced today in a press release. The game will be rescheduled at a later date.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN, who first reported the news of the postponement, several members of the Lakers organization have been impacted by the fires, including head coach JJ Redick, who lost his home (Twitter links). Redick said on Tuesday night that his immediate family and members of his extended family had to evacuate their homes in the Pacific Palisades area.
“We’re heartbroken for Los Angeles,” the Lakers said in a statement (Twitter link). “Our thoughts are with all those impacted by this unimaginable situation. And our gratitude is with the first responders and all of you who come together when we need each other most. … We’re with you, L.A.”
In a follow-up tweet, the Lakers told fans with tickets for the game to keep them, as the team will honor the tickets for the rescheduled date.
The Lakers’ and Clippers’ next games are at home on Saturday evening. The league will likely wait and see what happens with the devastating fires over the next few days before determining whether further postponements are required.
In unrelated news, the start of tonight’s game between the Trail Blazers and Mavericks has been moved up an hour (to 6:30pm CT) due to inclement weather in Dallas, per the NBA (Twitter link).
Had to do it. Wonder if they’ll have to postpone additional games with winds expected to be strong off and on through the weekend and 0% containment of the largest fires thus far.
It appears the Sunset fire is contained, Divide Fire too. The “Big 3” are the Hurst at 10% contained Eaton and Palisades at 0%. It appears the winds will die down by Friday but your initial question in context of this site is a good one, they might have to cancel the weekend games too. The air quality is very bad everywhere, going to LA right now is -not- a good idea, unless getting covered in ash and breathing in smoke is your idea of fun.
I’m once the winds die down and turn into an of shore flow our air quality is gonna suck. That’s why I see the ram game being moved to Arizona
Calm down America…
It’s winter… No need to carry on like it’s Australia in summer…
Wait until you have one of these in summer to panic about climate change… lol