Latest postponement no cause for alarm: NBA

LOS ANGELES • The National Basketball Association ( NBA) has said it is not planning to temporarily halt the season despite teams struggling to cope with the impact of rising Covid-19 cases and injuries.

Last Sunday's game between Boston and Miami was postponed to an as-yet-determined date because the Heat did not have the league-mandated eight players available, after contact tracing protocols left them short-handed.

Miami said earlier that guard Avery Bradley would miss the game due to the pandemic health and safety measures while Boston had only eight players - the bare minimum - available, with nine players missing out owing to injury and Covid-19 protocols.

But NBA spokesman Mike Bass told ESPN the league has contingency plans in place, given the uncertainty posed by the pandemic, despite the second game of the season to be pushed back after last month's Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets clash.

"We anticipated that there would be game postponements this season and planned the schedule accordingly," he said.

"There are no plans to pause the season, and we will continue to be guided by our medical experts and health and safety protocols."

The Philadelphia 76ers also had the minimum eight players active due to injuries and virus concerns in their 103-115 loss to the Denver Nuggets last Saturday, while the Dallas Mavericks were missing three players because of the protocols before their 112-98 win over Orlando Magic.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle believes all teams hit by Covid-19 will just have to find some way to cope.

"We're all dealing with a vast set of circumstances, so we've got to remain calm, and we've always got to have a plan for adversity," he said. "We've been expecting that this sort of thing was certainly a realistic possibility, and now we're dealing with it."

Still, NBA commissioner Adam Silver remains confident that the league will be able to pull off its reduced 72-game schedule.

"If we weren't, we wouldn't have started," he said. "I think we are prepared for isolated cases. In fact, based on what we've seen in the pre-season, based on watching other leagues operating outside the bubble, unfortunately, it seems somewhat inevitable."

But as to what it would take to suspend the season, Silver added: "The view is, I think, if we found a situation where our protocols weren't working, meaning that not only did we have some cases of Covid but also that we were witnessing spread either among teams or even possibly to another team, that would cause us to suspend the season."

NYTIMES, REUTERS