Kyle Anderson returned to action for the Grizzlies on Saturday night after missing five games in the NBA’s health and safety protocols. While Anderson only scored four points in 23 minutes, he chipped in nine rebounds and four assists in Memphis’ 20-point win over Washington.
After dealing with a mini-outbreak of COVID-19 this month, the Grizzlies now have just one player still in the protocols. Tyus Jones, the team’s lone affected player, is listed as questionable for Monday’s game in Philadelphia, suggesting that he could be on the verge of being cleared.
Here are a few more protocol-related updates from around the NBA:
- The Pelicans are no longer listing rookie Trey Murphy III on their injury report, signaling that he has exited the health and safety protocols and should be available on Monday vs. Cleveland. Murphy was out of New Orleans’ rotation even before he entered the protocols, having not played more than three minutes since December 28, so his return shouldn’t have a major impact on the team’s game plan.
- Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. has been upgraded to questionable for Monday’s game vs. Golden State and is no longer listed in the protocols, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Porter is dealing with an illness, but it doesn’t appear to be COVID-19.
- Nuggets guard Jamal Murray continues to recover from left ACL surgery, but isn’t in the COVID-19 protocols anymore, per the NBA’s injury report.
By my count, that leaves just 5 players in protocol: Heyward (CHA), Yurtseven (MIA), Bates-Diop (SA), Louzada (NO) and House (UTA). Great news for the league and seems to follow the Europe and CDC projections that Omicron surge would drastically decrease in the US by Feb/Mar. Here’s hoping that things stay on the right path and that the players, coaches and team personnel can have a healthy second half of the season.
Unfortunately, natural selection and evolution do not take a day off so as long as we have a large population of hosts (unvaxxed) then another speedier(!) variant can emerge. Hoping it doesn’t but conditions are right for it.