UNDATED (AP) — Dallas star Luka Doncic has entered the league’s health and safety protocols. That news came on the same day the NBA has postponed Toronto’s game scheduled for Wednesday at Chicago and Brooklyn’s game scheduled for Thursday at Portland.
It is the third consecutive Nets game to be pushed back. And it means that Brooklyn’s next possible game would be Saturday. That’s part of the NBA’s five-game Christmas slate, with the Nets scheduled to visit the Los Angeles Lakers. But with Kevin Durant, James Harden and others in the health and safety protocols, that game may also be in jeopardy.
The league is allowing teams to sign replacements to hardship contracts when a player tests positive for the virus, with hopes such moves can minimize the need for postponements.
Toronto’s Fred VanVleet is one of seven players in protocols for the Raptors, but the team — anticipating some roster reinforcements — flew to Chicago on Tuesday in anticipation of a the game there against the Bulls tonight.
Also in the NBA:
— Knicks guard Derrick Rose had surgery Wednesday on his right ankle and could miss two months. Already short-handed with six players in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, the Knicks have now lost the former league MVP whose arrival jump-started their run to the playoffs last season. Rose had missed the last two games with what the team said was ankle soreness.
— The Boston Celtics signed 40-year-old Joe Johnson to a 10-day contract Wednesday. Johnson started his NBA career with Boston when he was drafted 10th overall in 2001. The seven-time All-Star played 1,276 regular-season games through the 2017-18 season, averaging 16.0 points with the Celtics, Phoenix, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Miami, Utah and Houston.
