San Antonio Spurs-New Orleans Pelicans game postponed due to contact tracing

Monday night’s game between the San Antonio Spurs and the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center has been postponed “due to ongoing contact tracing” between the two teams, the NBA reported under two hours before the expected prognosis.

The league said none of the teams have the eight available players required to proceed with the scheduled game.

Sources say the issue stems from potential exposure to the coronavirus to a non-team member who was on both teams’ trips in recent days. The NBA takes extra care with these situations.

It marked the second postponement for the Pelicans this season. Their game two weeks ago against the Dallas Mavericks has been postponed due to traceability of contracts within the Mavericks organization, leaving Dallas without the required eight players.

New Orleans was also scared the same week when forward Zion Williamson had to miss a game under NBA health and safety protocols. Williamson ended up having an inconclusive COVID-19 test and only missed one game.

It was Spurs’ first postponement of the season. They come off a win over the Washington Wizards at home on Sunday night. This game was the first in Washington since January 11, as the Wizards postponed six straight games due to COVID-19 issues within the team.

Monday included, the NBA has had 22 games postponed this season.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski contributed to this report.