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Cleveland Cavaliers: The three toughest road trips of 2019-20

By Matthew Golonka

Cleveland Cavaliers Collin Sexton (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
Cleveland Cavaliers Collin Sexton (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /
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Cleveland Cavaliers
Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images /

The NBA released the 2019-20 regular season schedule on Monday afternoon, and the Cleveland Cavaliers will have their work cut out for them, and on the road, it’ll be even tougher.

The NBA released the 2019-2020 regular season schedule on Monday afternoon. Likewise, the Cleveland Cavaliers are predicted to have only 19 wins this upcoming season, which is set to be last in the NBA, according to Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey.

The Cavaliers are challenged with a total of nine road trips extending two games or longer, with the longest being six games away; for reference, you can view Cleveland’s schedule here, per the team.

While each trip represents a unique challenge, some stand out as particularly grueling for the Wine and Gold, which will likely be playing young players a continually bigger minutes-share as the season progresses.

Three major factors are playing into this ranking of the toughest road trips: opponent strength, length of the trip, and distance traveled.

There is nothing tougher for a young Cleveland team than traveling across the country to play against the star-studded Western Conference teams.

So as far as a road trip that almost made the top three cut, there’s one in March.

Honorable mention: March 10 through the 21, 2020

This is the longest road trip the Cavs will have to take all year, as they face six teams (the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers) over the course of 12 days.

Overall, the Cavs face weaker, younger teams, but the length of this trip will make it challenging.

Outside of Houston and arguably Indiana, the Cavs will play four low to mid-tier, young teams on this trip. Playing two former MVPs in Houston’s Russell Westbrook and James Harden presents enough of a challenge in itself, but the Cavs play no back-to-backs and match up against other rebuilding teams.

Thus, it was not quite enough difficult to crack the top three toughest road trips for the Wine and Gold in 2019-20.

However, the matchup against Charlotte is a must-win for the Cavs.

With All-Star Kemba Walker out the door (and now on the Boston Celtics via unrestricted free agency), the Cavs need to capitalize against the rebuilding Hornets for a much-needed confidence boost heading into the meat of this trip.