The Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers saw their last home game against the San Antonio Spurs and Charlotte Hornets respectively get postponed due to the Pacific Palisades wildfire razing down over 20,000 acres of LA property.
Both teams will return to the NBA court for games on Monday, with the Lakers hosting the San Antonio Spurs at the Crypto.com Arena and the Clippers hosting the Miami Heat at the Intuit Dome.
“The Lakers and Clippers will resume their season on Monday night, the NBA has confirmed. Lakers vs. Spurs at Crypto.com Arena at 7:30 p.m. Clippers vs. Heat at Intuit Dome at 7:30 p.m.”
This is a major move by the NBA, who postponed the Lakers’ last two games due to the wildfires and postponed the last Clippers game for the same reason.
The fire saw Kawhi Leonard take time away from the team to take care of his family while Lakers head coach JJ Redick saw his rental property in the Palisades burn down a few months after he moved there for his rookie head coaching season. Steve Kerr also lost his family home in the fire, while Leonard’s home is fortunately still standing.
The fires haven’t been contained, with different areas still seeing firefighters spend countless hours trying to minimize the damage that the fire has already caused. The Palisades neighborhood has essentially been burnt to a crisp, with this being one of the worst wildfires to sweep over a major city in years.
Basketball might seem trivial in the face of these tragedies, but the players have to return sooner rather than later. There are obvious schedule and financial concerns that will prevent the NBA from keeping either team out for long. Another argument for returning is that the fan communities in the region can rally around their home team playing games as a beacon of joy in these trying times.
The NBA will have to add two Hornets games back into the schedule. Their West road trip was greatly impacted by both their games in Los Angeles being postponed over the last week. The Lakers—Hornets game on January 9 was postponed due to the fires while the Clippers played against the Nuggets in Denver.
More games could be suspended if they threaten the Inglewood community, where the Intuit Dome is, or downtown LA, where Crypto.com Arena is.
It’s unclear how long it will take to contain the fire to a safe degree, but we’re still some ways from that happening. The hope right now is that the winds don’t pick up again and threaten the rest of the city, as the fire has spread to neighboring areas after burning down the Palisades.
The estimated death toll from this tragedy is 24 right now, coupled with the thousands of families who have been left homeless as their houses burned down.
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