The Nets are expected to have enough healthy bodies to play their highly anticipated Christmas Day game against the Lakers — but just barely.
And James Harden is expected to be among them, although fellow Big 3 members Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving aren’t.
“We have enough to play. I think we signed four G-League guys, so we have plenty to get to eight,” said coach Steve Nash, whose Nets will depart for their two-game West Coast road swing, truncated and threatened by a COVID-19 outbreak.
“The plan is to fly to Los Angeles [Friday] and play Christmas,” Nash said. “We had to shut everything down just out of precaution. But once we got back to a cadence, healthy guys could do one-on-none workouts but no group workouts.
“It basically just started up [Wednesday], and [now] guys are back on the court. And in isolation. It’s tricky. We haven’t been able to do a lot; but we do what we can and we will continue to adapt as the rules and mandates come in.”
The Nets had their last three games postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak: Sunday against the Nuggets, Tuesday versus the Wizards, and finally Thursday’s tilt in Portland, which was to be the start of a three-game road swing. Now Christmas Day tenuously stands as their first action in a week.
James Harden has returned to the Nets after being cleared from COVID protocols. Getty ImagesThe Nets have had a staggering 13 different players enter health and safety protocols since Dec. 13. And after three (Harden, Paul Millsap and Jevon Carter) cleared on Thursday, three other youngsters went in (rookies Cam Thomas, Kessler Edwards and David Duke Jr.) to leave them with 10 still in protocols.
That doesn’t even factor in starter Joe Harris being sidelined with an ankle injury, and center Nic Claxton’s status up in the air with a sore wrist suffered taking a hard fall in a Dec. 16 win over Philadelphia.
Millsap was the first Nets player to go into health and safety protocols on Dec. 13. Harden, Carter, LaMarcus Aldridge, Bruce Brown, DeAndre’ Bembry and James Johnson followed a day later, with Durant, Irving and first-round pick Day’Ron Sharpe all entering on Dec. 18.
Currently, players would have to wait 10 days or produce a pair of negative COVID-19 tests 24 hours apart to clear protocols.
While the NBA is reportedly close to an agreement with the NBPA to lessen the quarantine period for COVID-positive players, according to ESPN and The Athletic — similar to the NFL’s new plan — the Nets have said they’re not operating under the assumption that they’ll get any more players cleared from protocols before the huge Christmas Day tilt with the Lakers.
“We’re not expecting anyone else to come out of protocols,” Nash said. “But it is possible. I think you have to do two negative tests 24 hours apart. I guess that gives us [Thursday night] and [Friday] night to return two negatives. But we’re not predicting anybody to come out, necessarily.”
Nash said the healthy players have just started to return to HSS Training Center to resume individual workouts, so it’s unclear how much practice time the Nets are actually going to get before facing the Anthony Davis-less Lakers. They’re slated to be the headliner of the league’s five-game Christmas Day extravaganza, at 8 p.m. on ABC.
But as of Wednesday, almost 100 players around the league were in health and safety protocols, including superstars Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Trae Young — all of whom joined Durant and Irving as missing parts of the Christmas Day schedule.






