The NBA's bout with COVID-19 continues as Christmas Day nears. The latest hit comes to the LA Clippers, who already lost Marcus Morris due to a positive COVID-19 test. On Wednesday, the team announced that guard Reggie Jackson had entered the league's health and safety protocols and would miss the game against the Sacramento Kings.

Jackson becomes the third Clippers player to enter the league's health and safety protocols. Nicolas Batum contracted COVID-19 in mid-November and missed nine games in a 17 day span as he recovered from the virus. Marcus Morris tested positive December 17th, a day before the Clippers faced the OKC Thunder. Reggie Jackson registered a positive test, so both he and Morris will now have to wait until they can return two negative tests in a 24-hour period to return.

“You can get it doing anything, so you're really not sure, not aware [what you can do to avoid it], but the biggest thing is wearing your mask, trying to be as safe as possible,” said Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue. “This has been going on the last two years, so you gotta be able to adapt. A lot of teams are going through it, we have been fortunate where, you know, we haven't had to miss any games, and you know, we've had one player at a time, so they're doing all the right things and all the testing.”

The Clippers are fully vaccinated as of training camp, and the league has reported that 97 percent of its players are fully vaccinated. With the significant rise in COVID-19 cases league-wide, however, the NBA is encouraging players to get booster shots.

In a statement via ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski:

“We are proud to report that 97 percent of our players have been fully vaccinated and 65 percent of eligible players and counting have received the booster shot, more than twice the national average. Today, we committed to facilitating the delivery of booster shots to all eligible players and the NBPA is strongly encouraging all of our players to receive a booster as soon as possible.”

Whether it's due to injury or COVID-19 protocols, Tyronn Lue has called all the issues the Clippers have faced this year frustrating.

“Yeah, it is. I mean, you can't get a rhythm of how we want to play with all of our guys here, but everyone's dealing with the same thing. I talked to four or five coaches around the league that's frustrated with the same thing, so just having a chance to have our whole team for five, 10 games, just to see how it looks going forward. But like I said, it is what it is, talked about the last two years just being able to adapt, and we've done that, but it is frustrating.”

The Clippers will have two days off for Christmas after they play the Kings, but they start their first set of five games in seven nights on December 26th, which is a front end of a back-to-back set against the Denver Nuggets and Brooklyn Nets.