Cavs games scheduled for Sunday, Monday at WSH are postponed

The Cleveland Cavaliers were set to play at the Washington Wizards on Sunday and Monday, but those games were postponed.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were originally set to play two games at the Washington Wizards on Sunday and Monday, which would’ve been intriguing ones to see.

Those seemed to have been on track to maybe feature the returns of Collin Sexton (left ankle sprain) and Darius Garland (right shoulder sprain), too, who are set to have missed Cleveland’s past seven and five games. But we’ll have to wait on that.

We will see the debuts of recent trade acquisitions Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince on Friday at home against the New York Knicks it appears, though.

Albeit that Sunday-MLK Day back-to-back, of which both outings were slated for 3 PM, was postponed due novel coronavirus concerns, per a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski emphasized how, per the league, the Wiz won’t have eight players because of an “outbreak of positive COVID tests,” which was obviously painting the picture.

Along with those reports, per the league and as noted in a Cavs press release on Friday, they touched on the postponement, and how the Wizards were not able to have the league-mandated eight available players to play. That’s the reasoning for the postponement of these games, ultimately; this is the first COVID-19-related postponement for Cleveland this season.

We’ll have to see when these outings are postponed to between the Cavs-Wizards, anyway.

As h/t ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, the league met with the NBPA earlier this week laying out modified COVID-19 guidelines/protocols, and per Woj, had a call with NBA general managers and there was a league Board of Governors call on the matter.

The league, per Woj’s report, is still looking to keep pushing with the season, though, and did realistically expect some positive COVID-19 tests. And this postponement of the Cavs’ Sunday and Monday games at the Wizards were obviously anything but shocking, given the circumstances from the Wizards’ end even earlier in the week.

It’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to see Allen and Prince on Sunday/Monday, albeit we seemingly should on Friday, which is at least a plus. We’ll again have to see as to when these games will be postponed to, anyhow, but clearly, the NBA didn’t decide on its second half of the season schedule yet for this foreseeable postponement reason for games, essentially.

As far as the Cavs, though, the next time they play these games, we could see a different roster makeup, feasibly. After the Allen acquisition, with both being expiring players, Andre Drummond andor JaVale McGee could seemingly be moved via trade by the time these two Wizards games are played, one would think.

The trade deadline is slated for March 25, for reference; McGee, though, with him on the books for only $4.2 million, will be much, much easier to move should the Cavs choose to do so. Drummond could still maybe be with the Cavs at the time of these Wizards outings, however, or perhaps could still stick through the deadline, because he’s on the books for $28.8 million this season.

For what it’s worth, Cleveland has reportedly received calls about Drummond and McGee both, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. And regarding Drummond, one Eastern Conference executive reportedly believes Drummond is “definitely” out of Cleveland, per HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto. In terms of other recent reports/rumors involving Drummond and McGee, though, you can check those out here.

From the other end of the spectrum, from the Wizards’ standpoint, regardless of what happens with the Cavs by that time, it would seem far more likely that Russell Westbrook will be healthier, and should be active.

He’s been banged up due to a left quad injury and has missed Washington’s last two games that were played out, and it appeared unlikely he’d be playing in these originally scheduled games for Sunday-MLK Day. He was reportedly expected to be set to miss at least one week, as of Monday, given that.

When examining the circumstances for when these are played out, though, it’s a plus that Cleveland should seemingly have the likes of Garland and Sexton, anyway. And hopefully Kevin Porter Jr. (personal), for instance, can be back in the fold for Cleveland; he has not appeared yet this season.

We’ll again keep an eye out for when these Cavs-Wizards games are set to be rescheduled for in D.C.

Cleveland’s next games after Friday versus the Knicks are two against Allen and Prince’s former club in the Nets, both at home on Wednesday and next Friday, Jan. 22.