- The Warriors hope that second-year center James Wiseman, who participated in the team’s shootaround on Monday, can begin contact drills next week, says Ali Thanawalla of NBC Sports Bay Area. Wiseman has exited the health and safety protocols, but continues to work his way back from the knee surgery that ended his rookie season.
The NBA has announced the rescheduling of the 11 games postponed in December due to COVID-19 issues, listing the changes in a press release.
Additionally, eight other scheduled games have been shifted to accommodate the postponements. A pair of others have been shifted to new starting times.
Most notably, Kyle Lowry‘s return to Toronto will take place two days earlier than anticipated, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN points out.
The Raptors will now host the Bulls on February 3 instead of the Heat. Lowry’s return will occur on Feb. 1 in Miami’s rescheduled visit. The game that Toronto was originally scheduled to play that day against the Hawks will now be played on January 31.
The first two makeups will occur next week — the Nets at the Trail Blazers on Monday, January 10 and the Pistons at the Bulls on Tues, Jan. 11.
“There’s no easy way to do this,” Nets coach Steve Nash said to Bontemps and other media members. “If we were expecting it to be a sweet little add to the schedule, and no blood drawn, that would be foolish.”
The other rescheduled dates are as follows:
- New Orleans Pelicans at Philadelphia 76ers
- Previous: Dec. 19
- New: Jan. 25
- Denver Nuggets at Brooklyn Nets
- Previous: Dec. 19
- New: Jan. 26
- Toronto Raptors at Chicago Bulls
- Previous: Dec. 22
- New: Jan. 26
- Chicago Bulls at Toronto Raptors
- Previous: Dec. 16
- New: Feb. 3
- Miami Heat at San Antonio Spurs
- Previous: Dec. 29
- New: Feb. 3
- Washington Wizards at Brooklyn Nets
- Previous: Dec. 21
- New: Feb. 17
- Orlando Magic at Toronto Raptors
- Previous: Dec. 20
- New: March 4
- Golden State Warriors at Denver Nuggets
- Previous: Dec. 30
- New: March 7
- Cleveland Cavaliers at Atlanta Hawks
- Previous: Dec. 19
- New: March 31
There’s optimism that Klay Thompson will be able to return from his 30-month absence this coming Sunday when the Warriors host the Cavaliers, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Thompson, who missed the entire 2019/20 season due to a torn ACL and then spent the duration of the ’20/21 campaign recovering from a torn Achilles, has been practicing with the team for several weeks and appears on the verge of making his season debut.
The Warriors and Thompson have been eyeing a home game for Klay’s return. After Golden State hosts Miami on Monday, the club will embark on a two-game trip to Dallas on Wednesday and New Orleans on Thursday before returning to the Bay Area for Sunday’s contest. A decision on Thompson’s potential availability for Sunday is expected to come when the team returns from its brief road trip on Friday, says Wojnarowski.
With an NBA-best 28-7 record, the Warriors have been just fine without Thompson so far this season. However, if Golden State gets anything close to the All-Star version of the 31-year-old back, it would be a huge boon to the team’s title hopes. Before his injuries, Thompson was one of the league’s best outside shooters and was one of the Dubs’ best defenders.
Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols and has been ruled out for Monday’s game vs. Denver, the team announced today (via Twitter).
The Mavericks got good news over the weekend, as Luka Doncic was cleared to play for the first time since December 10 and led the team to a win in Oklahoma City on Sunday. But now Porzingis is at risk of missing a few games due to the health and safety protocols, and he’s not the only Mav affected — the club still has four other players in the protocols too.
Here’s more COVID-related news from around the NBA:
- Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is no longer in the health and safety protocols, acting head coach Mike Wilks said today (Twitter link via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman). Gilgeous-Alexander only entered the protocols on Saturday, so he may have registered a false positive test.
- Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, who had been in the COVID-19 protocols since last Tuesday, was able to practice today, per head coach J.B. Bickerstaff (Twitter link via Kelsey Russo of The Athletic).
- Pelicans center Jonas Valanciunas has cleared the protocols and will be available for Monday’s game against Utah, tweets Andrew Lopez of ESPN.
- Damion Lee and James Wiseman have exited the protocols for the Warriors, per the NBA’s injury report. Wiseman remains sidelined while he recovers from right knee surgery, but Lee is no longer on the injury report at all, and Golden State doesn’t have any players in the protocols.
- After briefly clearing the protocols, Hornets forward P.J. Washington reentered them on Sunday, according to the team (Twitter link). He’ll miss Monday’s game vs. Washington (Twitter link).
- Lonzo Ball and Alfonzo McKinnie of the Bulls have both exited the health and safety protocols and will be available to play on Monday vs. Orlando, tweets K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.
- Nets rookie Kessler Edwards is no longer in the COVID-19 protocols, according to the NBA’s injury report. Brooklyn was hit hard by an outbreak in December but currently has no players affected.
- Lakers assistant David Fizdale, who briefly served as the club’s acting head coach during Frank Vogel‘s stint in the protocols, has now entered the protocols himself, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
JANUARY 3: The Warriors have officially signed Weatherspoon to a two-way contract, the club announced today in a press release.
JANUARY 2: Shooting guard Quinndary Weatherspoon, who just completed a 10-day hardship exception deal with the Warriors, will rejoin Golden State on a two-way contract, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Weatherspoon was selected with the No. 49 pick out of Mississippi State by the Spurs, and logged two seasons with the Spurs on two successive two-way contracts, splitting his time between San Antonio and the team’s Austin NBAGL affiliate.
The 25-year-old out of Mississippi State kicked off the 2021/22 season with the Warriors’ NBAGL affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors. Weatherspoon has averaged 16.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.2 SPG and 0.7 BPG through nine games with Santa Cruz this year.
In his lone game with Golden State so far this season, Weatherspoon scored six points on 3-of-3 shooting from the floor. He also chipped in a rebound, a steal and a block.
Weatherspoon will supplant 6’3″ point guard Jeff Dowtin as the Warriors’ second two-way player while 5’11” point guard Chris Chiozza will continue to occupy the other two-way slot. Dowtin was released earlier today.
The Warriors‘ postponed game Thursday in Denver allowed the team to hold a rare scrimmage, which served as a dress rehearsal for Klay Thompson‘s return, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Thompson teamed with backcourt partner Stephen Curry under game-like conditions for the first time since the 2019 NBA Finals, marking a significant step in his return to action after missing two full seasons with injuries.
“Being out there, going up and down with the first unit, that was a big moment for me,” Thompson said. “A silver lining in the NBA canceling the game.”
Thompson has been physically ready to play for about a month, Slater adds, but the team has been cautious to avoid any setbacks. His first game will take place at home, but it’s unlikely to happen Monday, and Slater notes that a January 9 contest against the Cavaliers seems to be emerging as the target date. Thompson will return to the starting lineup right away, but he’s not expected to be used in back-to-backs and will begin with a restriction of about 18 minutes per night.
“Somewhere around there,” he said. “We got such a great, deep team. I don’t need to come back and shoulder a huge load. We’re so deep and talented that I can ease into things, which I’m very grateful for.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- After beginning the season out of the rotation under former coach Luke Walton, Kings forward Marvin Bagley appears to have a secure spot in the starting lineup as long as he keeps playing well, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Bagley will make his fourth straight start today as interim coach Alvin Gentry looks for rebounding help. “We’ve been struggling with rebounding,” Gentry said. “We’re a small team when we play the way we’ve been playing. Marvin’s rebounding numbers have been really good, so we stuck him in there and I think his numbers continue to be good. … We’ll continue to play that group and hopefully our rebounding will get better because we’ve got more size out there.”
- Terence Davis started six games in December while the Kings were short-handed, but he’ll be removed from the rotation now that other players have returned, Anderson adds in the same story. “It’s a tough situation, but I think it’s tough to play 10 guys. I think it’s tough to play 11 guys,” Gentry said. “You have to make a decision. That doesn’t mean he won’t play or won’t be in the lineup again, but right now I think it’s very difficult.”
- The Clippers picked up a tough road win against the Nets Saturday despite having to rely on three players who weren’t on their roster at Christmas, notes Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times.
Warriors star Draymond Green has cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols, according to Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated (Twitter link). He’s expected to play in Monday’s game against Miami.
Green missed two games due to protocols, including Golden State’s road contest against Utah on Saturday. The Warriors still ended up winning 123-116 and currently own the league’s best record at 28-7.
The Warriors have waived two-way guard Jeff Dowtin, the team announced (via Twitter).
Golden State claimed Dowtin off waivers in October after he was let go by the Magic. The 24-year-old appeared in four games, averaging 1.5 points and 1.8 rebounds in 7.0 minutes per night. He had a much larger role with the team’s G League affiliate in Santa Cruz, putting up averages of 17.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 12 games.
Dowtin also spent time with the G League’s Lakeland Magic after going undrafted out of Rhode Island in 2020. He signed training camp contracts with Orlando the past two years.
There’s no immediate word on what the Warriors plan to do with the open two-way slot.
The NBA is postponing Thursday night’s game in Denver between the Nuggets and Warriors, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Nuggets don’t have the required minimum of eight available players, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
As we outlined earlier today, the Nuggets had three players – Jeff Green, Bones Hyland, and Zeke Nnaji – enter the health and safety protocols. The team also has four players – Jamal Murray, Michael Porter, PJ Dozier, and Markus Howard – out with long-term injuries.
If everyone else had been good to go, Denver would still have 10 players on hand — or even 11, if Davon Reed signed his new 10-day contract prior to tip-off. However, Vlatko Cancar (non-COVID illness), Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Monte Morris (knee), and Austin Rivers (thumb) were all listed as questionable on this afternoon’s injury report — if all of them were deemed unavailable, the Nuggets would have only had six or seven healthy players.
The Nuggets will likely look to complete another hardship deal or two besides Reed’s before their next scheduled game on Saturday in Houston.
This postponement is the 11th of the NBA season, as our tracker shows. All of those postponements have occurred since December 14.
The Warriors received mixed news Wednesday evening. The good: guards Jordan Poole and Moses Moody have exited the league’s health and safety protocols, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link). The bad news is second-year center James Wiseman, who has been rehabbing from a torn meniscus and has yet to play this season, has entered the protocols, Slater tweets.
Poole was in the midst of a breakout third season prior to being sidelined, averaging a career-best 17.9 PPG, 3.4 RPG and 3.4 APG in 28 games (30.7 MPG). The 28th overall pick of the 2019 draft, Poole is eligible for a rookie scale extension in the summer of 2022. Rookie Moody has seen action in 22 contests with a modest average of 6.5 MPG.
Wiseman, the second overall pick of the 2020 draft, appeared in 39 games as a rookie last season (21.4 MPG), averaging 11.5 PPG and 5.8 RPG. The 20-year-old seven-footer has been practicing recently as he nears a return, but that will be delayed a bit longer after being sidelined by the COVID-19 protocols. The Warriors are reportedly very high on Wiseman’s upside and are committed to keeping him on the team.
Wiseman will be away from the team facility for at least six days or until he returns two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart.
The Warriors have the best record in the league at 27-7. Their next game is at Denver on Thursday.