Thunder's season opener at Houston postponed
The Oklahoma City Thunder's season opener at Houston scheduled for Wednesday night has been postponed due to the Rockets' issues with COVID-19.
The NBA's official release about the postponement read as follows:
The National Basketball Association game scheduled for tonight between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center has been postponed in accordance with the league’s Health and Safety Protocols.
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.
There were reports earlier in the day John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Ben McLemore would not be available for the game due to COVID-19 issues. Wall and Cousins had reportedly been at an apartment away from the team facility with Kenyon Martin, Jr. who tested positive for COVID-19.
Harden was being investigated for violating protocols after a video was posted of him at a night club without a mask.
There has not been an announcement when or if the game will be made up.
The Thunder's next scheduled game is Saturday at Charlotte at 6:00 pm.