NBA travel schedules are typically very precise. When a team has to play a back-to-back on the road, it usually gets on the plane as soon as it leaves the first arena so that it can land in the second city and get a good night of sleep before the next night’s game. The Golden State Warriors tried to do just that on Monday after their 102-100 victory over the Indiana Pacers… but their plane didn’t cooperate, according to Marcus Thompson and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
The Warriors couldn’t take off Monday night because of mechanical issues, so they stayed in Indianapolis rather than travel to New York for Tuesday’s game against the New York Knicks. They planned to get to New York Tuesday morning, but yet again, as Draymond Green let us know on Twitter, mechanical issues delayed their travels.
Finally, as of 10:35 a.m. on Tuesday, the Warriors finally managed to get in the air, according to Slater. That would get them to New York after noon on Tuesday and to their hotel between 1-2 p.m ET. The game itself will tip off at 7:30 p.m., and considering the time needed for warmups and any other pregame activities, the Warriors will essentially be left with no downtime between travel and preparing for the game. This is exceedingly abnormal in the NBA.
Tuesday’s game will likely include some history. Warriors star Stephen Curry needs just two 3-pointers to break Ray Allen’s all-time record after he made five triples against the Pacers.
Teams do everything in their power to ensure that they never have to travel and play on the same day, but sometimes, the situation is out of their hands. That was the case for Golden State, who will now need to beat not only the Knicks, but their own exhaustion in Tuesday’s game.
