CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Chicken Littles might be coming home to roost with the Cleveland Cavaliers soon.
In their losses in Utah and Portland, you could round up most of the usual suspects that were in supply in wins against the lame Brooklyn Nets and lousy Phoenix Suns in earlier stops on this six-game trip -- lazy passes, more turnovers than grandma's oven could produce for a family gathering, matador defense on penetrators, lack of interest in getting back quickly on defense, and wayward shooting.
Another transition period
The sky is not falling, though. The snow was in Oregon, however.
The Cavs are in their usual midseason transition mode. J.R. Smith is out with a broken thumb. Kyle Korver is trying to fit in with his new team and stop looking at least for now like Wally "Many Misses" Szczerbiak did in 2008. No proven back-up point guard is on the roster.
Hold the travel complaints
What shouldn't be blamed was the travel conditions, although heavy snow kept the Cavs' plane from landing in Portland until 2 a.m. the day of the game.
The Trail Blazers couldn't land in Portland after their game in Los Angeles and spent the night in Seattle. The Blazers got home the afternoon of the Cavs' game.
This argument falls on deaf ears for those of us who covered the NBA in the 1970s and early '80s, before teams used private jets (writers are excluded); when three games in three nights in three cities was a frequent schedule challenge; and when every travel day began with a 5 a.m. wake-up call and a 7 a.m. commercial airlines flight.
That was because teams could be fined $25,000, a lot of money in those days and not exactly tips for the hotel maid now, if they flew later and did not arrive on time.
The Blizzard of '78
The Philadelphia 76ers, the team I covered, played in Richfield the night the Blizzard of '78 hit.
All airports were closed the next day. On the 16 1/2-hour bus ride back to Philly, the entire traveling party stopped to buy beer and snacks at a roadside tavern.
Coach Billy Cunningham vetoed the bottle of Ripple, a skull-busting brand of cheap wine, which just-turned-21 Darryl Dawkins wanted to buy.
"Beer is fine," said Cunningham.
It was an era in which iced beers waited in the locker room for players after each game. One player, Caldwell Jones, disliking the sponsor's brand, had his own little plastic tub with a six-pack of his favorite in it. He would methodically drink them during interviews, one by one.
"Maximum Blitz" Bryant
Everyone on the bus ride played the football board game that Joe Bryant, Kobe's father, had gotten for Christmas and brought with him. Bryant's unvarying defensive tactic was an all-out blitz.
Everyone, even sportswriters, could counter it. Bryant lost every game.
"Maximum Blitz" played that way too, at least when it came to firing shots up as soon as he got into the game.
Hello, Juh-Juh-Jerry
The Lakers encountered travel problems getting to Philly once. The Sixers let their coaches and players eat with the writers in the press dining room because the home team knew it might happen to them sometime.
Cunningham introduced me to former Lakers coach Jerry West, my boyhood hero. The only time a tongue was tied like mine was at that moment might be when Trappist monks take their vows of silence. A writer can still become a kid again in the presence of the right player from his youth.
The very unready room
The trainer/traveling secretary once booked the team into a hotel on the day it opened one block from the Spurs' old arena in San Antonio.
The clerk told forward Bobby Jones, who was just ahead of me in the check-in line, that his room wasn't made.
"That's OK. I'll just drop my bag inside the door and go to the coffee shop," said Jones.
"No, sir," the clerk said, mimicking a man with an invisible hammer amid the racket of construction that filled the lobby. "Your room isn't made yet."
Wagon train
Cavs' studio host Jeff Phelps kidded analyst Campy Russell during the Portland game that the Cavs traveled by covered wagon when Russell played.
Close enough. Westward, ho, the wagons! In Indian country, ixnay on hief-Cay ahoo-Way.