The numbers may be down and life slowly sliding toward a new “normal” in most of the nation, but the pandemic is not gone and is still impacting lives.
It’s also impacting the NBA — the 76ers Tobias Harris and the Cavaliers’ Kevin Love are both away from their teams indefinitely after being placed in the league’s health and safety protocols.
Harris came as a surprise — he warmed up with the team pregame but was scratched about 30 minutes before the 76ers took on the Trail Blazers, reports Noah Levick at NBC Sports Philadelphia. There are not a lot of details — did Harris test positive or is this contact tracing related — and the team will know more about the situation and how long he is out in the next 24-48 hours, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Harris has been critical to the 76ers 4-2 start without Ben Simmons, averaging 19.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists a game. Furkan Korkmaz got the start for Harris on Monday night against Portland, a game where Philadelphia was already without Joel Embiid for a scheduled rest day.
Kevin Love also tested positive on Monday and will be out indefinitely, the team announced.
Love has played a solid veteran role for the Cavaliers off the bench (behind standout rookie Evan Mobley), averaging 9.9 points and 7.3 rebounds a game. This is a blow to a Cavaliers team off to a 3-4 start and picking up some quality wins. Here is what the Cavs’ coach said, via The Athletic.
With Love out, expect some Lauri Markkanen at the four (he has played the three so far) and some Dean Wade minutes as well.
