After navigating issues related to the winter storms throughout Oklahoma that have caused power outages and water issues and prompted Gov. Kevin Stitt to request a state of emergency declaration from the federal government, the Thunder are in Memphis set to play against the Grizzlies.
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s original flight was delayed, according to ESPN. The Portland Trail Blazers, who were scheduled to leave the city after the Tuesday night game hosted at Chesapeake Energy Arena, also had a flight delay.
The Thunder arrived in Memphis on Wednesday and went straight to FedExForum to change and warm up, head coach Mark Daigneault said during the pregame press conference. The game tips off at 8 p.m.
The weather has had some effect on the Thunder’s practices over the past week. Some practices were moved back so players wouldn’t have to arrive as early for coronavirus testing and to allow the roads to thaw before driving, Daigneault said Monday.
“Our operations people, security, it’s kind of all hands on deck — our organization, a lot of invisible people did a lot of really good work yesterday and over the next couple days to make sure that our team can just focus on basketball,” he said at the time.
This has been a complication to a game that wasn’t even originally on the schedule. On Jan 30, the NBA added this game to the schedule to adjust for the several coronavirus-related postponements of the Grizzlies.
Memphis missed five games in a row in mid-January.
Even with the change, Daigneault said on Monday that the Thunder, who have had two game postponents due to COVID-19, weren’t taken aback by the alteration.
“We were aware of it early enough and it was on the radar,” he said. “From a logistical standpoint, you gotta get a plane, you gotta get a hotel, so the league alerted us early enough that that would be happening. We knew going into the season that canceled games and makeup games were both possibilities.”
Now, the matchup between the Thunder and Grizzlies is set to begin.
“There’s a lot of forces outside of our control right now. We’re just trying to get the direction (from the league) and march, and the guys are great. In good spirits,” Daigneault said. “We’re excited to compete.”