Winter Storm Fern: Snow, ice forces postponement of NBA, college basketball games

As almost half the country deals with Winter Storm Fern, the impact also impacted the sports world. The NBA announced two Sunday games have been postponed: Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies and the Dallas Mavericks at the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Grizzlies game was originally scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET, but was rescheduled due to inclement weather in Memphis. The Memphis Police Department asked residents to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary, as the city deals with a combination of snow, sleet and ice. The latest updates have Memphis seeing up to three inches of snow, as well as below freezing temperatures across the city. A make-up date for the game has yet to be announced.

The Mavericks never even made it Milwaukee for their Sunday night game against the Bucks. Dallas was stuck on the tarmac at the airport for over four hours due to snow and ice in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Mavericks were scheduled to leave late Saturday night after a 116-110 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the team’s flight had been rescheduled to Sunday because of the weather. 

The make-up game between Dallas and Milwaukee could reportedly take place either Monday, which would cause a back-to-back for Milwaukee, or after the All-Star break on Feb. 19, per the Dallas Morning News. The decision of when the game takes place will be dependent on if the Mavericks can get to Milwaukee later on Sunday or Monday morning. 

Though it wasn’t a postponement, the Charlotte Hornets’ game against the Washington Wizards on Saturday was moved up six hours because of inclement weather. The same has happened across college basketball.

The start time of three ACC men’s basketball games were moved up due to the weather on Saturday, including Wake Forest at Duke, North Carolina at Virginia, and Virginia Tech at Louisville. Xavier also moved up its start time against St. John’s. No. 21 Georgia has also moved its game against Tennessee from Tuesday to Wednesday.

On the women’s basketball side, No. 1 ranked UConn moved its matchup against Seton Hall from Sunday to Saturday. No. 14 Baylor’s home game against Houston was pushed from Sunday to Tuesday. That’s just a couple from an ever-growing list of games being pushed up, or altogether rescheduled due to this storm.