Well, apparently the Golden State Warriors have played their last game of 2021. Fittingly, the year ends with a Covid-related cancellation after the Denver Nuggets couldn’t assemble enough of a roster to play.

The game will be re-scheduled for some later date, the Warriors’ first such postponement of the season. But nonetheless, this is a frustrating turn of events for a Warriors team that had signed a replacement player, brought up their rookies and two-way players and scrambled in order to be able to play short-handed.

Draymond Green took to social media right after, saying (in part):

How do you continue to cancel games when you’ve implemented rules to prevent this from happening? Is that not a competitive advantage for the other team?

Of course life isn’t always fair, but it’s not hard to understand where Green’s frustration comes from — and then Anthony Slater elucidated some further reasons on the radio this afternoon:

Damon & Ratto @DamonAndRatto

"The Warriors were basically waiting around all day for the Nuggets to decide if they wanted to play. They had 4 guys questionable w/ injuries, not protocol reasons. The Nuggets essentially could decide if those guys were healthy enough to go." - @anthonyVslater with us earlier.

95.7 The Game @957thegame

Draymond weighs in on tonight’s Warriors-Nuggets game being postponed ⤵️ https://t.co/NHqljHYOT6

December 30th 2021

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On the bright side, this will serendipitously allow the team to fit in two solid days of practice at high altitude ahead of their matchup against a very tough Utah Jazz team on Saturday.

Kendra Andrews @kendra__andrews

With tonight’s game postponed, the Warriors will hold a practice in Denver instead, I’m told. They hope to get some extra run time in for Klay and Jordan Poole. Warriors will also practice in Denver tomorrow before heading to Salt Lake City.

December 30th 2021

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Stay safe out there, folks!

See you all next year (sorry/not sorry for the dad joke).