The Toronto Raptors game scheduled for Sunday night against the Chicago Bulls in Tampa has been postponed due to the NBA’s “health and safety protocols.”
Posted Mar 01, 2021, 05:30AM EST
The Toronto Raptors game scheduled for Sunday night against the Chicago Bulls in Tampa has been postponed due to the NBA’s “health and safety protocols.”
WATCH: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/02/28/toronto-raptors-game-against-chicago-postponed-due-to-covid-19/
“Because of positive test results and ongoing contact tracing within the Raptors, the team will not have the league-required eight available players to proceed with the scheduled game against the Bulls,” read a brief statement by the NBA.
The Raptors were missing head coach Nick Nurse, five members of his staff and star forward Pascal Siakam for Friday’s win over Houston due to the league’s COVID protocols.
The Raptors used 12 players on Friday and had 14 listed as available to play that night. For Sunday’s game, Siakam was the only player who had been listed on Saturday’s injury report as out because of health and safety protocols – which indicates that results that came back on Saturday either showed more problems, or the contact tracing investigations showed that players had been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 and may have to quarantine.
General manager Bobby Webster would not confirm Friday if any of the coaching staff members or players had tested positive for COVID-19, citing privacy concerns.
Raptors players and staff are self-quarantining at home/residence other than being tested 2x a day at location near their practice facility in Tampa: https://t.co/GjhFc4myY9
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) February 28, 2021
Toronto were one of four teams that hadn’t had a postponement this season.
Toronto is scheduled to play two more games this week ahead of the All-Star break. The status of games against Detroit on Tuesday and Boston on Thursday have yet to be determined.
This is the 30th NBA game to be postponed so far this season because of COVID-19 testing or contact tracing.
Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report
