The Utah Jazz’s seven-game road trip will be ending early.
The NBA announced on Tuesday evening that the team’s Wednesday contest against the Washington Wizards has been postponed because the Wizards won’t have the necessary eight players available due to contact tracing.
The Wizards announced on Tuesday morning that they had canceled practice because two players had entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols. The team later said Rui Hachimura and Moe Wagner are the two players in protocol.
“There’s going to be a lot of stuff this year that we’re just doing on the fly or we’re getting a text and hour before something,” Joe Ingles said after hearing the news about Hachimura and Wagner but before Wednesday’s game was postponed. “We’ve just got to be pretty open and flexible with with what’s going on.”
Washington was already experiencing a hectic week after Russell Westbrook was ruled out because of a quad injury and center Thomas Bryant was lost for the rest of the season after he suffered a torn ACL over the weekend.
Even with those four players out the Wizards would have been able to field a team, which means that several other Washington players are likely a part of the league’s contact tracing efforts.
Wednesday’s game becomes the sixth to get postponed since the season began 23 days ago, but it is the fifth since last weekend.
The postponed game not only means that the Jazz’s road trip was cut short, but that they also avoid playing a second back-to-back set in a week. The first came last Tuesday and Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, both losses for the Jazz.
Additionally the Jazz will have two days off before they face the Atlanta Hawks at Vivint Arena on Friday, but Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said he isn’t looking to find the silver linings of the situation.
“Obviously you’re always grateful for rest when it comes during the season, particularly if you’ve had a stretch the way we’ve had, but we’re just trying to stay in the moment stay present,” he said Tuesday night after the Jazz beat the Cavaliers. “Whatever happens, happens. The game could have easily been played. For us not to look ahead I think is really the most important thing.”
The postponement comes on the same day that the NBA gave teams an updated list of more restrictive health and safety guidelines, which were discussed and decided through a series of meetings on Monday between the players, league office and owners. The meetings were held as a response to an uptick in coronavirus cases among players in recent days.
“The biggest thing is to just continue to stay locked in on the task at hand ... and that’s being unselfish,” Donovan Mitchell said. “I don’t have a family that lives with me, but other teammates do. So just continuing to be unselfish, and not just being safe for myself but for my teammates, for our coaches, trainers. That’s really all you can do.”
The Jazz have been one of the few teams in the league that have been fairly unscathed by COVID-19 this season. Mike Conley, Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles all had to be a part of the league’s isolation and COVID-19 protocol during the preseason, but they were all cleared in time for the first regular season game. Since then, Juwan Morgan, who is not a part of the Jazz’s regular rotation, has been the only player isolated from the team and is currently not with the Jazz on their road trip.
Georges Niang said that when training camp began, Snyder told all of the players that this was going to be a season full of distractions and unexpected situations so he has implored each player to try to just focus on the task directly in front of them.
“We have to be prepared for anything whether it’s two minutes before tip off or an hour and a half,” Niang said. “You kind of just have to be present and be ready to go. These guys, these coaches out here do a really good job of keeping us all prepared and well-informed.”
The Jazz are scheduled to play the Hawks on Friday before heading to Denver to face the Nuggets on Sunday for the first time since their 2020 bubble playoff battle.