NBA: One player tests positive for COVID-19 in week beginning 3 February

The NBA said one player tested positive for coronavirus in the past week, meaning only two have gotten that diagnosis in the last three weeks. The total for the season in the NBA is up to 92, but of those, 48 — or 52 per cent — tested positive in November, before training camps officially opened. The NBA reported one positive test for the weekly period ending 26 January, and no positive tests for the period ending 3 February. Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns — who has missed 13 games — tested positive last month and his recovery is complete. The Timberwolves had Towns back in the starting lineup on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers. Towns made the decision after going through a pregame workout to evaluate his readiness. “Underlying conditions and Covid don’t mix well,” Towns tweeted on Wednesday. Towns has lost seven relatives to COVID-19, including his mother. The NBA does not reveal which players test positive for COVID-19, but Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton said earlier this week that Bucks guard Jrue Holiday tested positive for the virus. That would make Holiday the one player in the NBA’s Wednesday announcement. Holiday is listed on the Bucks’ injury report for a virus-related issue, but those do not specify whether a player has tested positive or has been ordered to sit out because contact tracing found potential of exposure to another COVID-19 positive person. “This is nothing to play around with and once he tested positive, you immediately think about his health, his safety and his family back home,” Middleton said. “He has little kids, too, that he has to worry about.”