The NBA has postponed the Golden State–Denver game scheduled for Thursday night after COVID-related issues have left the Nuggets without the necessary eight players required to play.
It is the 11th game to be postponed this season for COVID-related reasons.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone entered the league’s health and safety protocols earlier Thursday along with other staff members, including two assistant coaches, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Nuggets forwards Jeff Green and Zeke Nnaji and guard Bones Hyland had also entered protocols Thursday, the team said.
In addition to the protocols, the Nuggets are dealing with several injuries, including questionable status on four players: Monte Morris, Aaron Gordon, Austin Rivers and Vlatko Cancar.
Warriors forward Draymond Green took to social media to vent his frustrations over the game being postponed.
How do you continue to cancel games when you’ve implemented rules to prevent this from happening? Is that not a competitive advantage for other teams? The guys we didn’t have due to the protocol list played no role in Tuesdays loss? Pick a side but don’t straddle the fence.
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) December 30, 2021
“How do you continue to cancel games when you’ve implemented rules to prevent this from happening?” Green posted to Twitter. “Is that not a competitive advantage for other teams? The guys we didn’t have due to the protocol list played no role in Tuesdays loss? Pick a side but don’t straddle the fence.
“So when the game is rescheduled(which will probably take a day away from our “break”), we wil play them at full strength… But they got to sneak a win when we weren’t at full strength, only two days ago??? Let’s make it make some sense here.”
Green said the postponement also would likely add a back-to-back to the Warriors’ schedule, “which is also advantage Denver.”
Assistant coach David Adelman will serve as acting head coach for the Nuggets during Malone’s absence, sources told ESPN.
Malone joins Doc Rivers (Philadelphia), Frank Vogel (Lakers), Monty Williams (Phoenix), Billy Donovan (Chicago), Chauncey Billups (Portland) and Mark Daigneault (Oklahoma City) as NBA coaches who have entered the COVID-19 protocols.
The Denver Post first reported about Malone and Adelman.