After dodging COVID-19 for nearly half of the NBA season, the Toronto Raptors were dealt a heavy blow.
The NBA canceled Toronto’s game against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday night because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
In a shortened NBA season that depends on COVID-19 cases and game cancellations, this will be the first game cancellation for the Raptors.
The league said the Raptors are dealing with positive test results and, combined with contact tracing issues, will not have the eight players the league requires on Sunday.
The team’s problems apparently started on Friday when Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, five staff members and striker Pascal Siakam were absent. Assistant Sergio Scariolo stepped in to coach the team to a 122-111 win over the Houston Rockets.
NBA players and staff are tested twice a day. The Raptors had 14 players available on Friday, playing 12. Siakam was the only Raptor player listed in Saturday’s injury report based on health and safety records who had positive results.
The names of the affected players or employees were not disclosed.
Before Sunday, the Raptors were one of only four teams with no postponement. Sunday’s game is the 30th postponed this season.
Make-up games add to the already jam-packed second half of the schedule released earlier this week.
The Raptors were scheduled to play 35 games in 66 days in the second half of the season, including a grueling four-game western road trip in which Toronto played four games in six days in Denver, Utah and Los Angeles against the Clippers and Lakers.
The Raptors’ next game is Tuesday against Detroit if they actually get the go-ahead. The only plus is that they only play one more time – Thursday in Boston – before the All-Star break.
The Raptors give a tip for the second half of the season against the visiting Atlanta Hawks on March 11th.
Due to Canadian border regulations for COVID-19 and health and safety measures in Toronto, the Raptors play their home games at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
Florida added 5,539 coronavirus cases and 118 deaths on Sunday. The state has had more than 1.9 million cases since the pandemic arrived last March.
READ MORE: Coronavirus incapacitates most Toronto Raptors trainers
– With files from The Associated Press
The Canadian press
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