By Canadian Press

Nuggets-Warriors off; Rivers, Malone enter NBA protocols

Dec 30, 2021 | 3:42 PM

The NBA postponed another game for virus-related reasons Thursday, raising the total to 11 pushed back so far this season while two more head coaches entered the league’s health and safety protocols.

Golden State’s game at Denver was postponed because the Nuggets — through a combination of injuries and a newly discovered outbreak of the virus — did not have the league-minimum eight players available to start the contest.

Had they played, the Nuggets would have also been without head coach Michael Malone. He went into the protocols on Thursday, as did Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers. The 76ers were using assistant coach Dan Burke in Rivers’ place for their game Thursday against Brooklyn.

Rivers and Malone join the Los Angeles Lakers’ Frank Vogel, Chicago’s Billy Donovan, Phoenix’s Monty Williams, Portland’s Chauncey Billups and Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault as head coaches in the protocols.

Also in the protocols: around 120 players, as of Thursday afternoon, along with an untold number of other staffers from around the league — including assistant coaches, broadcasters, referees, media relations personnel, stat crew members, athletic trainers and more.

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“This is mentally exhausting,” said Portland assistant Scott Brooks, who is filling in for Billups during his protocols stint.

For some teams, there was progress Thursday. Toronto, which has been decimated by the virus in recent weeks, had most of its players back for practice.

“I clean things a lot more. I wear my mask a lot more. I stay in my office by myelf all the time,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “I go home when practice is over. There’s all kinds of things that I try to do.”

Toronto guard Fred VanVleet was among the Raptors back on the floor, after recovering from COVID-19 for a second time. VanVleet’s tale this time wasn’t particularly different from many — not all, but many — players who have spoken about their virus experience in recent weeks, with the majority saying their symptoms weren’t particularly difficult to get through.

The league believes that is at least in part because of most players, 97% at last count, choosing to have been vaccinated and 65% of players having received a booster shot. Every NBA head coach is also fully vaccinated.

“This was different, different experience, different symptoms, different severity,” VanVleet said. “Obviously, it’ll probably take some time for me to work myself back, but it feels much more doable than it did last year. Hopefully the worst is behind me, personally. I can’t speak for anybody else but it wasn’t too bad this time around.”

Entering Thursday, the NBA has seen 558 players — already a single-season record — take the court this season, largely because teams have had to sign dozens of replacements to hardship contracts just to get through the periods of roster depletion caused by time missed with the virus.

That number is certain to rise in the coming days.

“It’s mindboggling,” Brooks said. “There’s so many good players in the world. It’s just tough to make it. It’s tough to make it. There’s 30 teams … these guys don’t even know those players and they’re making an impact. They play hard and they know how to play. They’re going to be NBA players. They just have to find the right spot.”

The Nuggets-Warriors game was the second to be pushed back by the NBA in as many days for virus-related reasons, the other being Wednesday when Miami — with players in the protocols and injured — did not have the league-mandated eight available players for its scheduled game at San Antonio.

The Heat have used 15 players this season and right now, no more than five of those are available to play. They signed three replacement players on Thursday and were closing in on other deals, including one with former Miami point guard Mario Chalmers — who started on the team’s NBA championship teams in 2012 and 2013.

Chalmers last played for Miami in November 2015, and last played in the NBA for Memphis in April 2018.

“I’m ready,” Chalmers said as he was finalizing his flight plans to Houston, where he plans to meet up with the Heat. “I think this is more emotion than anything, showing that I’ve been really working behind the scenes and not just talking about it. I definitely feel good enough to help the team win.”

The NBA changed protocols in recent weeks mandating that everyone in the bench areas must wear masks during games — with the exception being head coaches. Some coaches said last season that the masks, when they had to wear them, interfered with their ability to communicate with players and referees during games.

And many coaches, Nurse included, are simply saying that they’re doing their best to stay safe.

“I think it’s really a thing we don’t know much about,” Nurse said. “I’m really, really a lot on the side of ‘I don’t think anybody knows how to stay away from it, how to catch it, how not to catch it, how to whatever, where they got it from, what happens.’ I think everybody’s in a guessing game on all that stuff. And I just to do the best I can, as we all should.”

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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press