An hour before Tuesday’s scheduled 7:30 PM ET tipoff at Barclays Center, the Nets ruled out James Harden, who has entered the league’s COVID protocol, leaving Brooklyn with just eight available players—Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, Patty Mills, Nic Claxton, David Duke, Kessler Edwards, Day’Ron Sharpe and Cam Thomas—against Toronto.
Harden joins teammates LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul Millsap, DeAndre Bembry, Bruce Brown, Jevon Carter and James Johnson in the NBA’s “health and safety protocol,” leaving the Nets, who are also without Joe Harris (ankle surgery) and Kyrie Irving (personal), extremely shorthanded against the Raptors. The Nets aren’t the only team experiencing a COVID outbreak with the Bulls, who Brooklyn hosted earlier this month, postponing games Tuesday (vs. Detroit) and Thursday night (at Toronto). In the NFL, over 60 players in the past two days have tested positive (that includes Los Angeles Rams stars Jalen Ramsey and Odell Beckham) while the NHL finds itself in a similar bind, announcing two postponements Monday and another two Tuesday night.
In response to the recent outbreaks, the NBA will soon require mandatory daily testing for players who have yet to receive the booster. That new safeguard will go into effect Friday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. With Brooklyn down to just eight active players, expect Durant to shoulder an unusually large workload against the Raptors. Durant had been questionable with an ankle injury, but with so few available bodies at Brooklyn's disposal, that decision was essentially made for him.
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