The NBA has suspended two more games due to COVID-19 issues and contact detection issues, which postponed Monday’s game in Dallas between the Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as the power play Tuesday in Chicago between the Bulls and the Boston Celtics.
These moves come one day after Miami’s game in Boston was canceled due to problems locating contact in the Heat. It would have been a game in which the Celtics would have had only eight players available after seven were ruled out in the midst of the pandemic according to the league’s health and safety protocols.
The Mavericks-Pelicans game and Bulls-Celtics game increase the total games that have been postponed this season due to coronavirus-related matters to four and means that the league will have three consecutive days of postponement. The Heat will play in Philadelphia on Tuesday – but from Monday afternoon they will remain in their hotel in Boston, unsure of their next steps. The 76ers played Saturday with eight players available, but only seven of them were healthy in a loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Dallas did not have a minimum of eight players to play on Monday, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The league said it would meet with the National Basketball Players Association on Monday to discuss “amending the league’s health and safety protocols.” The NBA also planned a special meeting of the board of governors for Tuesday, sources told Wojnarowski.
The topics that will be discussed according to sources according to Monday are the possible revision of shootings and practice length, prediction and socialization to the court, further restrictions on restaurant restaurants and stricter rules for wearing masks.
There were four Dallas players on the COVID-19 protocol list as of Sunday night. The latest addition was Maxi Kleber, who tested positive for the coronavirus, sources told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. The entrees Josh Richardson and Dorian Finney-Smith, and the backers Jalen Brunson were already excluded; the three were left behind in Denver on Thursday after a win over the Nuggets on Thursday and missed Saturday’s victory at home against Orlando.
The other game, other than Sunday’s game between Boston and Miami, which was postponed, was the game on Dec. 23 between Oklahoma City and Houston. The NBA said Sunday night that the league expects there will be problems and does not intend to interrupt the season due to the current problems some teams are facing.
“Definitely been a unique start to the year,” Heat Guard Duncan Robinson said in an appearance on Reddit on Monday. “Were different challenges with all the protocols and new norms. I think the general sentiment is that everyone wants to play first, but everyone also wants to be safe first.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.