The Washington Wizards are now up to five players who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Shams Charania and Fred Katz of The Athletic.
The Wizards haven’t played in a game since Monday, when they beat the Phoenix Suns. Washington canceled practice on Tuesday after two players — Rui Hachimura and Moe Wagner — were placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocol.
Since, the league has postponed the Wizards’ game on Wednesday against the Utah Jazz and Friday’s against Detroit Pistons to conduct a contact tracing review. On Thursday it was revealed a third unidentified player tested positive for the coronavirus for the Wizards.
The Wizards are scheduled to play in a back-to-back series with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday and Monday. The status of those games remain unclear.
Washington went through a string of games in which at least one opponent’s player was placed in the health and safety protocol the day after playing the Wizards.
It started with Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant being placed in quarantine the day after the Nets played the Wizards on Jan. 3. Seth Curry of the Philadelphia 76ers tested positive for the virus a day after Wizards played the 76ers on Jan. 6.
The Wizards played the Boston Celtics, who had multiple players already in the health and safety protocol. However, Jayson Tatum tested positive the day after their Jan. 8 meeting. Wizards star Bradley Beal was placed in the coronavirus protocol due to contact tracing exposure from Tatum.
Beal missed Saturday’s game against the Miami Heat. However, the Heat had multiple players put in the health and safety protocol the day after their Jan. 9 meeting. Coincidentally, the Heat-Celtics game on Jan. 10 was the first of three straight Celtics’ games being postponed to deal with their coronavirus spread.
