Marc Stein: The NBA just announced its 17th postponement of the season: Washington at Milwaukee on Friday night is off. It will be the Wizards’ sixth postponement in a row and adds the Bucks to a list that is now at 22 of 30 teams to lose at least one game for health and safety reasons:
More on Game Postponements
Adrian Wojnarowski: The contact tracing is focused on Memphis' side, sources tell ESPN.
Adrian Wojnarowski: Portland-Memphis is postponed tonight because of contact tracing, sources tell ESPN.
Shams Charania: The Wizards-Hornets game on Wednesday has been postponed.
Keith Pompey: The Sixers are staying the night is OKC.
Joe Mussatto: The arena was cleared following the announcement and the Thunder is now practicing tonight at the arena, per a team spokesperson.
Adrian Wojnarowski: Memphis C Jonas Valanciunas has entered the league's health and safety protocol, team says.
Adrian Wojnarowski: The Sixers postponement is due to contact tracing connected with the game against the Grizzlies on Saturday night, sources tell ESPN.
Keith Pompey: The #Sixers have NO new positive COVID-19 test results to report at this time, according to a team source. However, they’re partaking in ongoing contract tracing due to a covid-related issue involving a recent opponent.
John Karalis: Contact tracing on the Sixers postpones tonight's game with OKC. Philly is Boston's next opponent so let's see how this impacts games later this week
Joe Mussatto: The Sixers are heading back to the locker room.
Tim Bontemps: Tonight’s Sixers-Thunder game has been postponed, the league announces. Too many Sixers are in contact tracing protocols for the game to be played.
Shams Charania: The Timberwolves-Grizzlies game tonight has been postponed, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
Tim Reynolds: The updated Games Lost This Week To COVID Mess scoreboard: Wizards 4, Celtics 3, Suns 3, Cavaliers 2, Heat 1, Pelicans 1, Mavericks 1, Bulls 1, Jazz 1, Magic 1, Hawks 1, Warriors 1, Pistons 1, Pacers 1
Connor Letourneau: Steve Kerr on Friday's game against the Suns being postponed: "You kind of know that stuff like this is going to happen this year, so you just adapt accordingly."
Marc Stein: The Suns' home game against Indiana on Saturday is being postponed, @NYTSports has learned
Cody Taylor: The Pacers-Suns game on Saturday has been postponed.
Tim Reynolds: The Magic have left the gate. Game on in Boston tomorrow.
Cody Taylor: Steve Clifford said the Magic are very confident the game tomorrow night vs. the Celtics will be played: "Our plan is that we'll be playing."
Sarah K. Spencer: The Hawks will stay in Phoenix and practice today. They've got two more games on this West Coast road trip: one in Utah Friday and one in Portland Saturday.
Chris Kirschner: Lloyd Pierce was asked last night about this game possibly getting postponed: “Welcome to the NBA in 2021. I think every minute, every hour and every day is going to be an adjustment. This has obviously been the toughest week since we started.”
Adrian Wojnarowski: Atlanta vs. Phoenix tonight has been postponed, sources tell ESPN.
Sarah K. Spencer: Source confirms no Hawks-Suns game tonight. The Suns recently played the Wizards, who have some players under COVID-19 protocols.
Clint Capela: 😷 life
Trae Young: 😐 damn... 😔
Adrian Wojnarowski: Two Wizards players in contact tracing, per source.
Adrian Wojnarowski: The Magic and Celtics were scheduled to play Wednesday and Friday in Boston, but Magic won't be traveling today, sources tell ESPN. It is immediately unclear the status of the Friday game, but sources say Wednesday's game has been postponed.
Tim Reynolds: Magic at Celtics on Wednesday is off, source tells AP. No determination yet on Magic at Celtics for Friday.
Adrian Wojnarowski: The Boston Celtics-Orlando Magic game on Wednesday is expected to be postponed, sources tell ESPN. The game is postponed, sources tell ESPN.
Anthony Chiang: The Heat is still scheduled to fly to Philadelphia tonight for tomorrow's game.
Adrian Wojnarowski: The NBA has set a special Board of Governors meeting for Tuesday, sources tell ESPN.
Barry Jackson: New Orleans-Mavs,Boston-Chicago postponed. Discussions ongoing with league&union about how to deal with growing problem, per a team source. NBA had opted not to go to 19 player roster instead of 17 (economics in play). Not sure why when MLB smartly agreed to 60 player pool in '20
Kyle Neubeck: The NBA is meeting with the NBAPA today to discuss modifying the league’s health and safety protocols, league says in a press release on postponed games
Brian Robb: Safe to assume Celtics do not have the league minimum eight players available to play on Tuesday night due to NBA Health and Safety protocols, which led to this postponement.
Tim Bontemps: With the Celtics already having their game postponed tomorrow, their next scheduled game is at home Wednesday vs Orlando. With @Adrian Wojnarowski reporting Boston doesn't have enough players, that means additional players beyond the seven in the Health & Safety Protocols yesterday are now.
Tim MacMahon: Source confirms that Pelicans-Mavericks game tonight is postponed due to COVID-19 issues, as first reported by @CallieCaplan
Adrian Wojnarowski: Ongoing contact tracing left the Mavericks without the necessary eight available players to play the Pelicans tonight, source tells ESPN.
Shams Charania: The Dallas Mavericks-New Orleans Pelicans game tonight has been postponed, sources tell @The Athletic @Stadium.
Some team executives have privately raised concerns in the turbulent past several days, but commissioner Adam Silver has remained committed to pushing through games with a minimum of eight available players per team and trying to complete as much of the schedule as possible prior to widescale access to vaccinations that could start to bring normalcy back to the league and country.
Sopan Deb: NEW from NBA spokesman Mike Bass: “We anticipated that there would be game postponements this season and planned this season accordingly. There are no plans to pause the season. We will continue to be guided by our medical experts and our health and safety protocols.”
Chris Forsberg: There’s the official word from the league ...
Brian Mahoney: Michael Malone learned of the Heat-Celtics postponement on his way to game at MSG, where his Nuggets are without Michael Porter Jr. "You are starting to see what is going on in our country directly affect the NBA because we are no longer in that safety net of a bubble," he said.
Adrian Wojnarowski: ESPN Sources: While the Celtics-Heat game has been postponed tonight, the NBA has no plans to pause the season despite thinning rosters because of COVID-19 protocols in several places.
Chris Mannix: Right now the NBA's plan is to ride this recent rough patch out. The expectation was January could be a tough month, and it has been. Still -- there are a growing number of team officials that are hoping the league pauses the season, even for a week.
Brad Townsend: I'm told that, while the NBA has no plans to pause the season despite today's Boston-Miami game and rising player absences across the league, there most likely will be additional protocols put into place in the coming days -- with the impetus coming from the players association.
Shams Charania: The Boston Celtics-Miami Heat game tonight has been postponed, sources tell @The Athletic @Stadium. A Heat player has returned an inconclusive test, and team does not have required eight players to proceed with game tonight due to contact tracing.
Tim Reynolds: Tonight's Heat-Celtics game is postponed, AP is told.
Marc Stein: The Rockets are scheduled to fly to Portland tonight for SATURDAY’S game against the Trail Blazers and — as of Christmas afternoon — they are on course to have enough players to travel, league sources say. Houston must have eight players in uniform for the game to go-ahead.
“It’s every day for us, and I know you wake up and you’re waiting for test results, and we’re testing all the time and talking to our guys about the safety of everyone, but a lot of this stuff is possibly inevitable,’’ Donovan said Wednesday in a Zoom call. “From our standpoint, you have to deal with what it is you’re dealing with, with people being out, but this is something that’s going to be going on for quite some time. And it makes it very, very challenging.”
“It’s not even necessarily people testing positive,’’ Donovan said. “A lot of it is the contact tracing and someone that maybe was exposed to someone that is infected. I’ve talked to our players about the safety part of it, but they also have to keep themselves ready. You can have a guy that’s completely out of the rotation, then for the next two or three weeks, he can be completely in the rotation. We have to do a good job, players and coaches, of making sure we’re all staying ready.’’
Brandon Rahbar: Mark Daigneault on OKC’s game being postponed: “We found out pretty late. This is kind of the circumstances we are in. Really pleased with the mentality of the organization and the team.”
Tim Bontemps: The Rockets-Thunder game has been postponed
