On the night of Dec. 22, the Chicago Bulls are set to take on the Toronto Raptors at home at the United Center. This is set to be the final game before the Christmas break for the Bulls. But both teams are shorthanded.
Granted, the Raptors look to be in a much worse situation right now than the Bulls are due to the league’s health and safety protocol. While the Bulls had an outbreak of apparent COVID-19 cases within the team in the last couple of weeks, that same bug is going around the Raptors locker room right now.
According to the most recent injury report from the NBA on the morning of Dec. 22, the Bulls have five players listed as either doubtful or out due to the health and safety protocol. The Raptors now have more than double that.
Chicago Bulls vs. Raptors could get postponed
Now hearing Raptors at Bulls tonight is at risk for postponement because some of Toronto's emergency signees from the G League Showcase in Vegas might have to go right into health and safety protocols. Toronto still might not have enough players.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) December 22, 2021
More: https://t.co/LGN9cVpeGP
A tweet from Marc Stein on the morning of Dec. 22 reported that the Raptors could have an emergency postponement for this game given the fact that some of their last-minute additions to the roster, mostly via G-League players, could be entering the health and safety protocol too. It is pretty clear that the Raptors’ situation is getting dire due to the number of players missing in the health and safety protocol.
If Bulls-Raptors does end up getting postponed, and as of this Tweet it’s still up in air, that could impact whether Bulls add more 10-day hardship signings. Their next scheduled game is Dec. 26 and four players, including LaVine, could be out of protocols by then. Stay tuned.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) December 22, 2021
A tweet from K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago also on the morning of Dec. 22 noted that the Bulls could have an interesting situation come up if this meeting with the Raptors is postponed. The Bulls made multiple 10-day contract signings on Dec. 21 to make up for newly added players to the injury report, due to various reasons, this week.
There is the writing on the wall at this point that the game could be postponed. A lot of complications in the Raptors’ travel situations, and the very fact that the Toronto-Chicago game last week was postponed due to the Bulls’ COVID-19-related issues, do sensibly put the status of this game in doubt on Dec. 22.
The original tip-off time between the Bulls and Raptors at the United Center in Chicago on the night of Dec. 22 is set for 7 p.m. CT. Second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Bulls carry a record of 19-10 into this game, if it does happen, coming off their Dec. 20 win over the Houston Rockets at home.