NBA postpones Nuggets-Warriors following COVID outbreak, source says

With COVID cases surging within the Denver Nuggets, their home game scheduled against Golden State on Thursday night was postponed by the NBA.

The postponement was the second Nuggets game delayed by spiking COVID cases this season — and the first in which the Nuggets’ roster was the one impacted by the virus. The other postponement came at Brooklyn on Dec. 19., when the Nets had numerous players who tested positive.

The Nuggets’ Bones Hyland, Jeff Green and Zeke Nnaji all entered the health and safety protocol Thursday morning. The Nuggets didn’t have any new cases before the decision was made to postpone the game in the afternoon, a source told The Denver Post.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone also tested positive for COVID, as did two assistant coaches, multiple sources told The Post earlier in the day.

The decision to postpone was a practical one because, in order for the Nuggets to reach the NBA-mandated eight available players, it would’ve required at least one or two of Denver’s injured players to suit up. Monte Morris, Aaron Gordon, Vlatko Cancar and Austin Rivers were all listed as questionable on the team’s injury report on Thursday.

Morris, Gordon and Cancar all missed Tuesday’s game at Golden State, while Rivers played.

The Nuggets wanted to avoid a situation where the entire team went to Ball Arena Thursday night anticipating a game only to have the event shut down because they didn’t have eight available players.

Outside of the injured group, the healthy players available were Will Barton, Facu Campazzo, Nikola Jokic, Bol Bol, Petr Cornelie, JaMychal Green and Davon Reed, who was set to sign a third 10-day contract with the team on Thursday.

The fact that the Nuggets needed to make a 10-day player official in order to get within one of the required eight healthy players was an example of how chaotic the day was. After the initial spate of positive tests, team officials didn’t know to what extent the game was in jeopardy.

Golden State’s Draymond Green, who didn’t play in Tuesday’s game because he was in health and safety protocols, tweeted that the postponement was unfair.

“They got to sneak a win when we weren’t at full strength only two days ago??” he said.

In reality, the Warriors used 10 players in Tuesday’s loss. The Nuggets would’ve needed to use three of their injured players just to get to that number for Thursday’s now-postponed game.

The Nuggets were tentatively scheduled to start a two-game road trip on Saturday in Houston.

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