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NBA postpones 76ers-Thunder matchup due to COVID-19 outbreak

The NBA has postponed yet another game this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league, after a week full of postponements, called off the Philadelphia 76ers’ matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena just hours before it was set to tip on Sunday night.

The 76ers, the NBA said, did not have the required amount of players available to participate in the contest.

The 76ers had four players not make the trip to Oklahoma City — Joel Embiid, Seth Curry, Vincent Poirier and Mike Scott — and had at least six players in the health and safety protocol due to contact tracing, per ESPN. The contact tracing is reportedly connected to their 106-104 loss to the Grizzlies in Memphis on Saturday, a game they had to play with just nine people.

Philadelphia is now set to host the Boston Celtics next on Wednesday.

That matchup is now the 14th that the league has postponed so far this season — which isn’t even a month old. All but one of those postponements came within the last week.

The NBA also introduced new health and safety protocols on Tuesday, which included keeping players and coaches isolated when not competing and increased mask usage, among other things.

There were more than 201,000 new cases of the coronavirus reported in the United States on Saturday, according to The New York Times, and the country is now averaging more than 224,000 new cases and more than 3,300 deaths a day.

Head coach Doc Rivers of the Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers won't have enough players to take on the Thunder on Sunday night. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

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