Wednesday’s scheduled regular-season opener between the Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder was postponed due to Houston lacking the required number of active players to play, according to the NBA.
Rockets star James Harden was deemed “unavailable” due to a violation of COVID-19 protocols, while Ben McLemore and KJ Martin Jr. were each self-isolating after positive test results. However, in addition to those two, other players were also unavailable due to contact tracing.
According to the NBA, three players — presumably, McLemore, Martin, and one other — had either positive or inconclusive test results.
Here’s the league’s official announcement:
Three Houston Rockets players have returned tests that were either positive or inconclusive for coronavirus under the NBA’s testing program. Following the contact tracing protocol, four other players are quarantined at this time. Additionally, James Harden is unavailable due to a violation of the Health and Safety Protocols. All other Rockets players were tested again today, and all returned negative results. Houston has one additional player who is unavailable due to injury.
As such, the Rockets do not have the league-required eight available players to proceed with tonight’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The league announces tonight’s Rockets vs. Thunder game is postponed. pic.twitter.com/6nb0S5ACEf
— Cayleigh Griffin (@cayleighgriffin) December 23, 2020
The NBA has yet to announce when Wednesday’s game, which was set to take place in front of limited fans at Toyota Center, will be rescheduled. At the moment, Houston’s next game on its 2020-21 schedule is set for Saturday night in Portland.
