The NBA is worried about the second postponement of the coronavirus game during the season, as the Philadelphia 76ers await the league’s ruling on the submission of a contact tracing report from several players who shared the closeness of guard Seth Curry, sources told ESPN.
The Sixers’ list of seven players placed in the health and safety protocol, based on close contact with Curry – who tested positive for the coronavirus – could leave them behind the eight players who need the league at 15:00 on Saturday. ET to play. against the Denver Nuggets in Philadelphia.
For now, the Sixers are available on six available players: Ben Simmons, All-Star forward, Dwight Howard and Tony Bradley, newcomer Tyrese Maxey and Isaiah Joe and Dakota Mathias.
The Sixers are awaiting the league’s evaluation of the circumstances surrounding the seven players’ individual affairs to find out if it is possible that at least two of them could be cleared on Saturday to save a postponement. The NBA Contact Detection Guidelines can determine different clearances for different players, including isolation periods of zero to seven days.
After it was learned that Curry had sent back a positive test for COVID-19 early in the Sixers loss to the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn on Thursday night in New York, Curry was rushed off the floor and in isolation, sources said.
The 76ers had to wait for the results of Friday’s test at the team’s hotel in lower Manhattan before finally boarding a series of separate buses around 11pm ET for the ride back to Philadelphia, sources said.
The Nuggets flew to Philadelphia on Friday without talented young forward Michael Porter Jr., who is still being sidelined indefinitely under health and safety protocols, sources said.
The Houston Rockets-Oklahoma City Thunder postponed an opening night when the Rockets had only seven players.