Wizards-Pistons game postponed, second straight for Wizards originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Washington Wizards have had a second consecutive game postponed due to the league’s Covid-19 protocol, as their Friday night match-up with the Detroit Pistons will be pushed to a later date.
The Wizards were supposed to play the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night, but after Rui Hachimura and Moe Wagner entered the league’s protocol, the process of contact tracing left them without the requisite eight healthy players to play. Wizards-Pistons is the seventh NBA game to be postponed already this season, just three weeks after it began.
The league only released the first half of its 2020-21 regular-season schedule in preparation for situations just like this. They built in flexibility to be able to reschedule games. But now the postponements are continuing to pile up at an alarming rate.
The Wizards played their first 11 games of the season without a postponement, but had a string of games where their opponents were affected by the coronavirus protocol. Some players had confirmed positive tests and entered the mandated 10-to-14 day quarantine. The close calls appear to have caught up to the Wizards, who are currently monitoring a potential outbreak.
The health of the players and people involved is the most important part of this to consider, but as the league continues to have trouble playing games, they may have to consider more stringent rules. Just this week, they instituted stricter policies, including regulations on guests in hotel rooms and interactions between players on different teams.
The NBA is trying to pull this season off outside of a bubble, like they had in Orlando to compete the 2019-20 campaign. So far, it is proving to be an increasingly difficult task.
