PORTLAND, ORE.: Tyronn Lue had one thought when he learned the Cavaliers’ charter flight was taking off from Salt Lake City early Wednesday morning without knowing where they would land.
“Just land safely,” he laughed. “That’s the biggest thing for us.”
The city of Portland — and Oregon as a whole — were both under a state of emergency Wednesday after more than a foot of snow paralyzed a region unaccustomed to dealing with severe weather.
The game between the Cavs and Trail Blazers started Wednesday night as scheduled even though an overnight storm wreaked havoc on both teams’ travel plans and temporarily closed Portland’s airport. The Cavs and Trail Blazers were both trying to fly to Portland following games Tuesday night. The Blazers played at Los Angeles.
The Cavs landed in Portland around 2:15 a.m. PST Wednesday and didn’t get to their hotel until close to 4 a.m. The Blazers never made it to Portland, instead rerouting to Seattle and spending the night there. Coach Terry Stotts said once the flight was rerouted to Seattle, they didn’t have the opportunity to change the itinerary back to Portland when the weather cleared slightly.
“Portland [airport] opened up, but [the Cavs] had all of the logistics planned. They had their hotel, they had buses there,” Stotts said. “The logistics on the ground were already in place. Whereas once we set our flight plan, we weren’t able to make changes midflight.”
The Blazers landed in Seattle around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and arrived at their hotel around 4:15. They took an 11 a.m. bus back to Sea-Tac airport and flew to Portland. They booked hotel rooms for the players in Portland upon arrival to keep everyone together. They arrived to their Portland hotel around 2 p.m. and took a 4:30 bus to the arena for the game against the Cavs.
Stotts said the team quickly ruled out the idea of taking buses from Seattle to Portland on Wednesday, a stretch of about 170 miles, because he was confident the airport would open up at some point and trying to travel that far on snow-covered roads would’ve been worse. But the team booked hotel rooms for the players in Portland because they weren’t sure what condition the city would be in upon landing.
“Just not giving them the opportunity to miss [the game] or be late,” Stotts said. “It just made more sense.”
All of the Blazers players’ cars remained at the airport. Stotts said the team had a bus available after the game to take players back to their cars. Players will have the option of picking up their car and going home or staying the night in the hotel and driving home Thursday.
The Cavs benefited from gaining an hour since Utah is Mountain time and Portland is Pacific. James Jones said aside from getting in a little later than usual, the players’ routine wasn’t really impacted. Lue let the players sleep in and did not hold any meetings or film session at the hotel prior to the game.
“We expect to get into cities late night, especially on the night of a back-to-back,” Jones said. “If you look at what we did in the Finals against Golden State [in 2015], flying back in between games in the Finals where you have one day’s rest after playing a Finals game, that’s way more taxing than getting into Portland an hour-and-a-half late.”
Cars were left snow-covered and stranded along Interstate 5 near Portland’s airport Wednesday and rail service into downtown was disrupted by a fallen tree over the tracks. Locals couldn’t think of a worse storm in the last 20 years.
Curiously, the league postponed the Blazers’ home game against the Detroit Pistons last Saturday because of the threat of inclement weather. Instead the game was played on Sunday. This time, with the city essentially shut down, the game was played anyway. It was a national television game carried by ESPN.
Stotts said despite all of the travel complications the Blazers endured, he didn’t have a preference whether or not to postpone the game until Thursday, when the arena was available and both teams would’ve been better rested. Postponing the game 24 hours would’ve created another back-to-back for both teams. The Blazers will host the Orlando Magic on Friday while the Cavs play at Sacramento.
“I’m glad to play the game,” Stotts said. “Get it over with and move on.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.