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BOSTON, MA — As of the 10:30AM EST official NBA injury report this morning, Jordan Poole entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols. He will miss tonight’s game in Boston and for all intents and purposes will miss tomorrow’s game in Toronto. Note: Anthony Slater was the first to tweet that Poole was listed as such and the 9:30AM report did not show Poole on it.
Draymond Green and Steve Kerr were asked about the growing number of NBA players having to enter protocols and miss games, yesterday at practice in New York City. The league postponed two Chicago Bulls games because of it. The Sacramento Kings have been reported as having an outbreak. Steve Nash even told reporters that it “doesn’t feel right” that the Brooklyn Nets have only had eight players available and Kevin Durant is shouldering the heavy burden of carrying them.
In short, Green guesstimated there were about thirty or so players (SJ Mercury’s Evan Webeck just tweeted that he counted 26 as of this writing) — Al Horford and Grant Williams also entered protocols this morning, per Shams Charania’s sources and not yet listed on the injury report at the time — out for COVID reasons. And Kerr said everyone on the Golden State Warriors who is eligible already got the booster:
So the Warriors will continue to be vigilant and wear masks whenever possible.
Here’s everything I know about the health and safety protocols, with the more “juicy” stuff (both facts and speculation) behind the paywall demarcation line as it pertains to the Warriors, behind-the-scenes, in no particular order:
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An expert has told CNN that he expects a “viral blizzard” coming, and CNN also has a report on Omicron variant case rates “rising rapidly” in some states; both articles are currently on CNN’s home page.
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An NBA insider tells me he thinks that, yes, the increase in players hitting protocols is related to the Omicron variant, although he has no direct indication of the NBA acknowledging that.
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Who will start in place of Poole? So far, users on our private Discord server (again, available for paid subscribers of this website, powered by Substack) think it will be Damion Lee, even though he’s currently mired in a shooting slump. Lee is a veteran, has been there, done that, and even won a game on a buzzer-beater last year in Chicago.
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Both the Celtics and Warriors cancelled their morning shootarounds today. Yesterday, I filmed Andrew Wiggins playing 1-on-1 against Poole (see videos below and paid subs get a few extra vids too), but…