Carmelo Anthony did not travel with the Portland Trail Blazers to Los Angeles for Monday’s game against the Lakers due to NBA health and safety protocols, the team announced Domigo. At this point, it is not clear why exactly the league’s health and safety protocols would prevent Anthony from traveling with the Blazers to Los Angeles. The Blazers gave the same designation to refer Nassir Little.
Anthony played 20 minutes in Portland’s victory over the Houston Rockets on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon, he tweeted about his excitement about playing against close friend LeBron James again. This suggests that everything that prevented Anthony from traveling with the team was recent and unexpected.
Although a positive COVID-19 test is a possibility, several others also exist and nothing can be said definitively. Technically, the Blazers didn’t even exclude Anthony from the game, only declaring that Zach Collins was out due to an injury. So far, the Rockets are the only team that has lost players due to violations of the health and safety protocol. Ironically, it was who Portland played against on Saturday, although the offending players did not play.
Portland will be on the road for the next four games, but will only have two stops on the trip: Los Angeles and San Francisco. Whether Anthony will be able to return to the team at any of the stops is still unclear, but, fortunately, Portland is deep enough in the forward positions to sustain an extended absence from his. Off-season additions Robert Covington and Derrick Jones Jr. supplanted Anthony on the Portland team, so while the Blazers would certainly prefer to have Carmelo with him, they are prepared for whatever happens in this situation.