NBA playoffs will start again, but Thursday’s games, including Mavericks-Clippers, will be postponed

The NBA playoffs will begin again, but it will not happen on Thursday.

A day after three games – Bucks-Magic, Rockets-Thunder and Lakers-Trail Blazers – were postponed because teams chose not to take the floor in protest of Jacob Blake’s police shooting in Kenosha, Wis., Expert the NBA is proposing more, including the three playoff games scheduled for Thursday.

“NBA playoff games for today are not played as planned. We are hopeful to resume games like Friday or Saturday. “Later, a video conference call association is planned,” NBA executive vice president Mike Bass said in a statement.

The Mavericks and Clippers were scheduled to play Game 6 of their series on Thursday at 8 p.m. If the teams return to play, Dallas will be left in a win-or-go-home situation in the 3-2 series.

The other games scheduled for Thursday were Jazz-Nuggets and Celtics-Raptors.

The dramatic series of moves began when the Bucks – the NBA team from Wisconsin, shook a state in recent days by being shot by police by Blake, a Black man – did not take to the floor Wednesday for their playoff game against the Magic.

Players had discussed boycott games in the bubble after Blake was shot in Kenosha, Wis. Players and coaches in the bubble were invited to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss how – if and when – to continue with the season.

Demanding social change and ending racial rights has been an important part of the NBA’s restart at Walt Disney World. The phrase “Black Lives Matter” is painted on the arena courts, players have messages on it, asking for change on their jerseys and coaches are giving pins, which are also asking for racial justice.

Many players wrestled for weeks over whether it was even right to play, for fear that a return to games in recent months would draw attention to the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, was shot dead when police officers entered her apartment in Louisville, Ky., With a no-knock recommendation during a March 13 drug investigation. The verdict was in connection with a suspect who did not live there and no medicines were found. Then, on May 25, Floyd died after a Minneapolis white police officer nearly eight minutes punched a Black Man in the neck – all recorded on video from a cell phone.

Learn more about this evolving story. The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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