NBA adds new Pistons-Bulls game on Wednesday; Spurs games postponed due to COVID
Due to severe weather in Texas, the Detroit Pistons' road game against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday has been postponed.
Instead, the Pistons will play a different team Wednesday. The NBA is adding a Pistons-Bulls game to the schedule, with the Pistons traveling to Chicago for an 8 p.m. matchup. The two teams haven't met yet this year, but both had games scheduled for Wednesday postponed.
The Bulls were initially set to play the Charlotte Hornets, but the game was delayed to a later date due to contact tracing for the Hornets.
Chicago (11-15) is ninth in the Eastern Conference and led by Zach LaVine, an All-Star candidate averaging a career-high in points (28.2), rebounds (5.5) and assists (5.2), while scorching the nets with shooting splits of 51.5% FG/43.1% 3P/85.4% FT. He is sixth in the league averaging 3.8 turnovers.
The Pistons (8-19) went 3-1 last week, keyed by Eastern Conference Player of the Week Saddiq Bey, but retain the league's second-worst record.
Detroit has had four games postponed this season, and two this week. They were supposed to host the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, but the game was upended by a coronavirus outbreak within the Spurs' organization.
The NBA said Tuesday that four Spurs players have tested positive, though the league does not announce specific players. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich announced last month, on his 72nd birthday, that he has received the vaccine that protects against the effects of COVID-19.
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Spurs Sports and Entertainment CEO RC Buford said “basketball is secondary” right now given the situation in Texas with the storm and outages. “Our team is responsibly handling our health and safety situation and will return to playing games as soon as it is safe to do so."
The NBA on Tuesday postponed five more games: the next three for the Spurs – at Cleveland on Wednesday, at New York on Saturday and at Indiana on Monday – as well as the next two for the Hornets while contact tracing is completed. In addition to the newly scheduled Pistons at Bulls game on Wednesday, the Denver Nuggets will now travel to Cleveland on Friday to face the Cavaliers.
Charlotte coach James Borrego said “there’s no indication that anybody” on the Hornets’ roster is positive for COVID-19. But the Hornets finished their game with the Spurs with just eight available players, and Borrego confessed that he doesn’t know what his roster will look like if Saturday’s game goes on as scheduled.
“The league is doing everything they can to gather information and even more information,” Borrego said. “They’re going to watch us over this next week and make sure we’re OK. I think that’s really where it starts.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @omarisankofa.