Cup of Cavs: Cleveland Cavaliers news and links for Friday, December 17

Another Friday, another end-of-week Cup of Cavs.

The first sip

The Cavaliers have a big weekend ahead of them as they face both of last year’s Eastern Conference finalists (Bucks and Hawks) on back-to-back nights. It’s a prime opportunity for the Cavs to prove themselves, but the schedule is stacked against them.

The Cavs follow up a late 9 p.m. tip off in Milwaukee on Saturday by immediately flying all the way to Atlanta to play less than 24 hours later at 7:30 p.m. That feels like a schedule loss if I’ve ever seen one. In other words: if the Cavs get smoked on Sunday, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve failed their big test or aren’t legit. They’ve proven themselves plenty already, and will have plenty of other, better opportunities to do so again.

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Kelsey Russo on Isaac Okoro gaining steam

Links of the day

Cavs back on NBA.com’s Power Rankings notebook (and for defense this time!)

Early candidate for Cavs Photo of the Year

Urban Meyer is the worst and deserves the worst

What happened between Luka Doncic and Rick Carlisle