Jazz point guard Mike Con­ley left the bub­ble Sun­day morn­ing to be in Colum­bus, Ohio, for the birth of his son, mean­ing it’s high­ly unlike­ly he’ll be avail­able for the start of the Nuggets-Jazz play­off series, which tips at 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Upon leav­ing the bub­ble and under­go­ing dai­ly COVID tests, some play­ers have been able to return and quar­an­tine for four days — the min­i­mum quar­an­tine time for play­ers who leave the bub­ble. The NBA assess­es each play­er on a case-by-base basis, and that time is deter­mined by the dai­ly COVID tests and a player’s activ­i­ties while out­side the bubble.

Game 2 is Wednes­day and Game 3 is Friday.

In his absence, the Jazz could start reserve guard Jor­dan Clark­son, whose 3‑point shoot­ing against Den­ver this sea­son gave the Nuggets fits. In three games, Clark­son buried 58.3% of his 3‑point tries vs. Denver.

“My first reac­tion is my best wish­es to Mike Con­ley and his fam­i­ly,” said Nuggets coach Michael Mal­one when informed of the news. “I hope every­thing goes well… our thoughts are with the Con­ley fam­i­ly. If Mike Con­ley is not avail­able for Game 1, what­ev­er it is, I am sure oth­er guys will step up. We were able to go into Utah this year and win with sev­en guys. I don’t buy into that too much. If Mike Con­ley is not avail­able, that means more Dono­van Mitchell, who is an All-NBA cal­iber player.”