USA Basketball is set to play a doubleheader with Australia on Friday afternoon, with the women looking to bounceback from a loss to the WNBA All-Stars on Wednesday night followed by the men looking to avenge their loss to Australia last weekend. However, it’s possible the men’s game could be canceled, as Team USA deals with COVID issues within their already thin roster.
Bradley Beal is officially out of the Tokyo Olympics after entering health and safety protocols and Jerami Grant has entered protocols as well out of “an abundance of caution,” leaving his status in question as well. That leaves Team USA with 7 of their original 12 players from the roster, as Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, and Devin Booker are all still playing in the NBA Finals. They’ve already been using a number of players from the Select team during their exhibition games, but according to Brian Windhorst and Olgun Uluc of ESPN, with just seven main roster players available and continued questions about potential spread, canceling the game is a very real possibility.
Team USA is in a struggle with COVID as one player is out of Olympics (Brad Beal), another is in protocols (Jerami Grant) and now there are discussions underway about canceling tomorrow’s game with Australia, sources tell @OlgunUluc & me
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) July 15, 2021
While it would obviously be a disappointment for both sides, it seems that at this moment, the most prudent course of action is to take every possible precaution to ensure that there aren’t any further positive tests — and that Australia doesn’t suddenly find itself dealing with COVID issues. We’ll see what the two sides choose to do, but it’d be hard to fault either for not wanting to play the game tomorrow and err on the side of caution, particularly as a rise in positive tests continues in the U.S. and in Tokyo where the Games are set to begin in just over a week.