The coronavirus pandemic is messing with the Detroit Pistons schedule again. The NBA announced the matchup with Tampa, I mean Toronto Raptors in Tampa, won’t take place tonight as planned. It’ll be the 31st game postponed because of Covid-19 related issues. At the moment, the matchup is rescheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday, March 3). However, if it will actually take place is anybody’s guess at this point in time.
This was spurred because of positive tests within Raptors. Toronto already had a game Feb. 28 against Chicago called off and is still doing the ‘contact tracing’ to determine its ability to play games (a reminder: according to Collective Bargaining Agreement, a NBA team needs to have eight active players suited up to be able to play a game).
Looking at the matters from the Pistons side of things, it’ll be the fourth time that the franchise has its schedule changed due to the pandemic. Detroit had two meetings – Jan. 15 versus Washington and Feb. 16 versus San Antonio – postponed due to positive tests results within Wizards and Spurs organizations, respectively. And it had a match at Denver postponed due to inconclusive test result within its own organization.
Beside this, the team didn’t play at Dallas on Feb. 17 owing to the state of emergency introduced in the response to severe weather in the State of Texas. But in this case, the NBA rescheduled a game at Chicago between the Pistons and Bulls, previously planned for the second part of the season, for this very day (at the time, the Bulls had its meetup with the Hornets postponed because of health and safety protocols). And Detroit had its Feb. 14 game at Boston moved up to Feb. 12, so they could play a game against Pelicans on home ground.
If Toronto will not be able to play the game on Wednesday, the NBA may try again to do something similar, and arrange some game for Pistons which was planned for season’s later part. Whether it will or the Pistons-Raptors matchup will take place as planned, Detroit will end the first half of the season on back to back, as they had a game at New York on Thursday, also a new addition to the first half schedule. If neither of this happens, the franchise will have more packed second part of the season.
Whichever the decision will be, we’ll try to keep you informed. Stay safe!