Miami – The NBA postponed Wednesday’s game between Miami and San Antonio after a slew of injuries and positive tests left the Heat unable to meet the league’s requirement of eight available players.

This was the 10th game postponed in the NBA this season due to virus-related issues. None of them have been rescheduled.

Miami had 12 players out of the game against Tottenham for a variety of reasons. The Heat beat Washington on Tuesday night with only eight players available, of which only five were able to play Wednesday in San Antonio.

Gabe Vincent, who played 35 minutes in Tuesday’s win, learned after the match that he had tested positive and was unable to travel. Jimmy Butler was ruled out Wednesday after injuring his right ankle a minute before the left of the Wizards game, and KZ Okpala was unable to play due to the injury he sustained on Tuesday.

The Heat also added PJ Tucker and Zylan Cheatham to the protocols, neither of whom played on Tuesday. Tuesday’s game came after Miami goalkeeper Max Strauss, who was asymptomatic, was withdrawn after the heat recovered, due to a positive test that required him to go into protocols.

“He’s so baffling about this now, this alternative,” Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said. “I think we’ve come to a point, I’ve said it before, we need more information. Are there more asymptomatic cases? All but double vaccination, with a booster dose and then asymptomatic. What does that mean and what adjustments can we make? There? I think it generates a lot of confusion.”

Miami tried to get the team’s help Wednesday, ironically, from the Austin Spurs, the San Antonio branch of the J-League, in part because these players can get to San Antonio relatively quickly and in time to play. Miami were on track to sign Austin’s midfield contract with Eric Holman on Wednesday, and will likely need more reinforcements ahead of their next game scheduled for Friday in Houston.

Nearly every NBA team has been grappling with virus-related issues in recent days, with more than 120 players and five head coaches entering protocols on Wednesday.

“The whole league is going through this,” Spoilstra said.

The association told the teams in the early hours of Wednesday that it was adjusting its protocols again, this time to shorten the time required of the player who shows a positive result, he must spend in isolation to five days, according to the guidelines published by the American Centers for Control and Disease. The Prevention League announced the revelation in a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The five-day isolation is based on the player being asymptomatic or having their symptoms resolved by the fifth day. This change does not necessarily mean that a player can return to court more quickly, because the updated CDC guidelines also require an additional five days of wearing a mask when others are present after coming out of isolation.

But it does allow teams, when a player or staff member tests positive on a road trip and must immediately begin self-isolating, the ability to use commercial airlines to bring that person home sooner than in some cases during the 10-day isolation period. . It was valid.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.