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Andrew LopezESPN
Monday night’s game between the San Antonio Spurs and the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center has been delayed “because of continued contact tracking” within both teams, the NBA announced less than two hours before the scheduled release. .
The league said that neither team had the eight players available to proceed with the scheduled game.
According to sources, the problem stems from the potential exposure to the coronavirus to a non-member of the team who was part of the travels of both teams in the past few days. The NBA is taking extra care with these situations.
This marked the second postponement for the Pelicans this season. The two-week game against the Dallas Mavericks was postponed because of contract tracking within the Mavericks organization, leaving Dallas without the necessary eight players.
New Orleans also had a scare in the same week, when striker Zion Williamson had to lose a game under NBA health and safety protocols. Williamson ended up having an inconclusive COVID-19 test and lost just one game.
This was the first postponement of the season for the Spurs. They are coming from a win over the Washington Wizards at home on Sunday night. That game was Washington’s first since Jan. 11, as the Wizards had six consecutive games postponed because of problems with COVID-19 within the team.
Including Monday, the NBA has had 22 games postponed this season.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski contributed to this report.