PORTLAND -- It was really only a matter of time.
Though they managed to avoid large-scale outbreaks on their roster for longer than many teams, multiple players on Portland’s roster have recently been put into the NBA’s health and safety protocols due to testing positive for COVID over the last few days.
Jusuf Nurkic, Robert Covington, Cody Zeller, Dennis Smith Jr., Ben McLemore, Trendon Watford and Keljin Blevins are all out due to health and safety protocols for Monday night’s game versus the Dallas Mavericks at Moda Center (tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m. on ROOT Sports and 620 AM), and for probably a few games after that. Head coach Chauncey Billups is now in health and safety protocols as well, with assistant coah Scott Brooks serving as acting head coach until his return.
Assuming each player has tested positive, they have will have to sit out 10 days and return two negative PCR tests within 24 hours in order to return to play (though these rules also seem to be subject to change UPDATE: Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting the league is dropping the quarentine time down from 10 days to six). So with seven games over the next 14 days, the Trail Blazers are likely to be playing shorthanded -- not exactly a rarity in the NBA these days -- for the next few weeks.
While the Trail Blazers have had players miss games due to COVID infections since the start of the pandemic, this is the first time during the 2021-22 campaign that they will have players out due to health and safety protocols.
With the COVID-related absences, along with CJ McCollum still sitting out as he recovers from a right lung pneumothorax and Damian Lillard being questionable for personal reasons, the Trail Blazers could be down to as few as 10 players for Monday’s game. Had the Trail Blazers not signed Jarron Cumberland, Cameron McGriff and Brandon Williams to 10-day hardship exception contracts the day after Christmas, they would not have the minimum requirement of eight players.
The Dallas Mavericks enter Monday’s contest in a similar situation. Dallas has backfilled their roster with G-League players with Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Reggie Bullock, Trey Burke, and JaQuori McLaughlin all out due to health and safety protocols and with Willie Cauley-Stein sitting due to personal reasons. They had 13 players in uniform in their last contests, a 120-116 loss to the Jazz in Salt Lake City on Christmas Day.
While this is the first time this season the Trail Blazers have had to endure their own issues with COVID infections, it is not the first time they’ve had a game impacted by the pandemic. Portland’s game versus the Nets, originally scheduled for December 23 at Moda Center, was postponed due to Brooklyn not having the required number of available players. That game has not yet been rescheduled.