The NBA has called off two more games due to COVID-19-related and contact tracking issues, postponing Monday’s game in Dallas between the Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans and Tuesday’s game in Chicago between the Bulls and Boston Celtics.
Those moves came a day after Miami’s game in Boston was called off due to problems tracing contacts within the Heat. That would have been a matchup where the Celtics would have only had eight available players after seven were ruled out in accordance with the league’s health and safety protocols for playing during the pandemic.
The Mavericks-Pelicans match and Bulls-Celtics game will increase the total number of matches postponed this season due to coronavirus-related issues to four, meaning the league will be delayed for three consecutive days. The Heat is scheduled for Tuesday in Philadelphia – but from Monday afternoon they stayed at their Boston hotel, unsure of their next steps. The 76ers played with eight players available on Saturday, but only seven of them were healthy in a loss against the Denver Nuggets.
Dallas did not have the minimum of eight players allowed to play on Monday, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The league said it will meet with the National Basketball Players Association on Monday to “change the league’s health and safety protocols.” The NBA has also scheduled a special meeting of the board of governors for Tuesday, sources told Wojnarowski.
The topics to be discussed at Monday’s rally may include re-examining shootarounds and practice lengths, socializing before and after the game in court, further restrictions on dining in 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 being Maxi Kleber, who tested positive for the coronavirus, sources told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. Starters Josh Richardson and Dorian Finney-Smith, and backup Jalen Brunson were already out of the question; those three were left behind in Denver after a victory over the Nuggets on Thursday and missed Saturday’s win at home against Orlando.
The other game, in addition to the game between Boston and Miami on Sunday, which was postponed, was the December 23 game between Oklahoma City and Houston. The NBA said on Sunday evening that the league expected there to be problems and has no plans to pause the season due to the current problems facing some teams.
“Definitely a unique start to the year,” said Heat Guard Duncan Robinson in a performance on Reddit on Monday. “Been several challenges with all the protocols and new standards. I think the general feeling is that everyone wants to play, but also that everyone wants to be safe first.”
This report uses information from The Associated Press.