On December 14, Beijing time, the NBA officially approved the Bulls' application, agreeing that the Bulls postponed two games (against the Pistons on the 15th and against the Raptors on the 17th), and the game with the Lakers on the 20th was not postponed; the league agreed to postpone the game with the Bulls, on the one hand, hoping that the Bulls can have more healthy players to return, on the other hand, to avoid the spread of the epidemic.
Recently, the Chicago Bulls have been hit by the epidemic, and there are currently 9 players in the team who have triggered health and safety agreements and have been quarantined: Lavin, DeRozan, Troy Brown, Matt Thomas, Jawant Green, Derrick Jones Jr., Dotham, Stanley Johnson and Aliz Johnson, and one player , Patrick Williams, who was injured for 4-6 months.
Even though the entire team has been vaccinated and most of them have been given booster injections, the bulls have been reduced to the epicenter of the outbreak.
Nine positives were quarantined and 1 was seriously injured, with deRozan and Lavin two stars on the list, and the Bulls had only 8 players left to play, including two two-way contract players and McKinney, who temporarily filled the vacancy, which is the minimum number of players in the league.
Bulls officials have also announced that the match with the Pistons and Thunder has been postponed, and the tickets bought by fans can continue to be used on the new game date; however, the game between the Bulls and Lakers has not been postponed, and the two teams will play against each other on December 20.
This is the first time this season that the league has announced that it has postponed the game, and it is a helpless move to be hit by the epidemic, which is also a way to avoid the expansion of the epidemic and prevent the shutdown; the league postponed a total of 31 games last season, and was forced to shut down in 2020.