After losing the the Mavericks on Monday, the Portland Trail Blazers will play their second game with replacement players when they host the Utah Jazz Wednesday night (tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m. on ROOT Sports and 620 AM) in their last home game of 2021. But the reality of the situation is the despite the importance these games have on Portland’s chances of making the postseason -- they’re currently tied for 11th in the West -- they are not able to put in anywhere close to the preparation they’d like as they struggle to limited future outbreaks.
For example, on Sunday night the team announced that Jusuf Nurkic, Robert Covington, Ben McLemore, Dennis Smith, Keljin Blevins, Trendon Watford and Cody Zeller (who was already out with a knee injury) were out for Monday’s game versus Dallas due to health and safety protocols.