Trail Blazers avoid Pelicans game being postponed after delay in OKC

Trail Blazers

Trail Blazers avoid Pelicans game being postponed after delay in OKC

/ by Jacob Camenker

Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are playing the second game of a back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.

However, this won't be a typical back-to-back for Portland. As NBCSNW Trail Blazers reporter Jamie Hudson noted, the team's flight from Oklahoma to Louisiana after their game against the Thunder was delayed until Wednesday because of inclement weather in Oklahoma. As a result, the team will head straight from their flight to the game.

Team announced, the Blazers flight from OKC to New Orleans, originally scheduled to depart following last night’s game was postponed due to inclement weather. The team is now scheduled to depart OKC this afternoon. They’ll go directly to the Smoothie King Arena for tonight’s game
— Jamie Hudson (@JamieHudsonNBCS) February 17, 2021

This rarely happens in the NBA, as the league usually mandates that teams travel to each game location a day beforehand. Exceptions are made for weather events like this, but the Trail Blazers had a cutoff time to leave Oklahoma City to avoid a postponement.

Evidently, they were able to do just that, as the team posted photos of the players boarding their flight to Twitter just after 1 p.m. PT.

OTW pic.twitter.com/u5s8TBMsWv
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) February 17, 2021

That should give them ample time to get situated in New Orleans before their 6 p.m. PT start time against the Pelicans.

It's worth noting that the Trail Blazers dealt with a situation similar to this back in 2017. As detailed by Casey Holdahl of NBA.com, the Blazers actually had to fly to a home game day-of as a result of a snowstorm in Portland.

After a long delay at LAX, the team flew to Sea-Tac Airport in Washington, stayed the night in Tacoma and then got on a plane the day of the game, flew into PDX and stayed at a downtown hotel before hosting Cleveland in a game that they would go on to win 102-86.

Casey Holdahl, NBA.com

Winning after all that travel in 2017 was certainly a challenge, and it's one that the Blazers will have to be up to tonight if they want to beat the Pelicans. Damian Lillard was involved in that trip, so perhaps he can draw from his experiences to help the team prepare for this one.