A day after the scheduled opening recreation of the 2020-21 common season for the Houston Rockets was postponed resulting from COVID-19 points, it grew to become clear that additional video games might be in jeopardy, as nicely.

Wednesday’s postponement occurred as a result of Houston fell under the roster minimal of eight lively gamers, largely resulting from contact tracing amongst a gaggle headlined by John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins. Their state of affairs reportedly traces again to an prolonged haircut go to. Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, that group is going through a seven-day quarantine, which might presumably final by way of subsequent Tuesday, Dec. 29.

In the mean time, Houston’s subsequent scheduled video games are set for Saturday, Dec. 26, in Portland and Monday, Dec. 28 in Denver. Even with the haircut group out, the Rockets have been anticipating to be again to not less than eight lively gamers with the return of James Harden, who the NBA allowed to exit his personal quarantine (over a separate incident) by Saturday.

Nevertheless, Charania reported late Thursday that resulting from a separate optimistic take a look at for a employees member, extra contact tracing was being carried out involving guard Eric Gordon and others. That may probably drop Houston under the minimal of eight lively gamers once more.

Amongst Houston’s 15 wholesome gamers below contract. not less than eight are recognized to be below some type of self-quarantine resulting from both a optimistic take a look at or the potential for publicity, decided through contact tracing. These gamers are Ben McLemore, KJ Martin Jr., James Harden, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Jae’Sean Tate, Mason Jones, and Eric Gordon,

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As of Wednesday’s postponement, Gordon was not on that listing. So whereas Harden’s projected return would permit the Rockets to play, if all else was equal, the lack of Gordon (and probably others, per Charania’s report) would offset that and put them again in the identical place.

Within the worst-case state of affairs, Houston ought to have sufficient gamers to play by subsequent Thursday, Dec. 31, since that’s exterior the one-week window of the biggest quarantine group. The Rockets are scheduled to host the Sacramento Kings at Toyota Heart on New 12 months’s Eve, in what was initially slated because the fourth recreation of their 2020-21 reular season.

However the video games previous to that on Saturday and Monday would probably be in jeopardy. As of late Thursday, the NBA had but to make a proper announcement relating to the standing of both recreation.

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