2 min read • December 14, 2021
Posted in
The Nets will be without a large swath of their players for the near future after James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Bruce Brown, among 7 Nets, test positive for COVID-19 and were placed in the NBA's health and safety protocols on Tuesday.
That list of players, excluding the 3 listed, is Paul Millsap, DeAndre' Bembry, Jevon Carter, and James Johnson, leaving the Nets with 8 healthy bodies for Tuesday night's bout with the Raptors. That is the minimum number of players needed for a team to be eligible to play.
A relevant aside: Brooklyn played the only team to face a larger outbreak, the Bulls, 10 days ago on Dec. 4. According to the CDC's guidelines, symptoms can emerge between 2-14 days after exposure to the virus.
Brooklyn is the 3rd team to see outbreaks this month, following the Hornets and Bulls, and may be the 2nd to see games postponed if they lost any more players. The Nets, 1st in the East at 19-8, are already without Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris for the extended future, putting even more pressure on Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin to carry the load.
Considering their action with Chicago – postponing its next 2 games – the NBA is likely to take the same approach with the Brooklyn, who would likely be without all 7 players until its Christmas matchup with the Lakers, unless they posted 2 negative PCR tests over 24 hours apart.
Kevin Durant was one of the first marquee players to contract COVID-19, which he fought through during the league's 5-month break during the spring and summer of 2020.
Written by
