CLEVELAND, Ohio — As regular-season games started being lost to the lockout, NBA Commissioner David Stern repeatedly said the “calendar is not our friend.”

Cavaliers coach Byron Scott could say the same about his 66-game schedule, which begins Monday at The Q against the Toronto Raptors.

There is a franchise-long, seven-game road swing that spans four time zones in January.

There is arguably the league’s most difficult non-conference schedule in a condensed season in which teams don’t face every opponent home and away.

There is the breathless push to the finish line which has the Cavaliers playing 16 games in the final 24 days.

“I don’t want to handcuff our guys and put that type of pressure on them and say this is the number [of wins] I think we should be able to reach this year,” coach Byron Scott said. “Guys start looking at that number and getting the deer-in-the-headlights look.”

If there is reason for optimism it comes in the season’s opening weeks as rookies like Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson look to build confidence and find practice time to correct mistakes.

The Cavaliers play just three opponents in their first 13 games that qualified for the playoffs a season ago. They get the Raptors, Charlotte Bobcats, Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves for a combined six games in that stretch.

“Everybody is going to complain about the schedule at some point in time,” Scott said. “The beginning of our schedule is OK. We have some days off and we have some teams we feel we can compete against. It’s just a matter of these guys continuing to grow and learn as we go along.”

The Cavaliers will get their practice time early in the season. During the previous lockout in 1998-99, then-rookies such as Earl Boykins, a Cleveland Central Catholic graduate who played for the Cavaliers, said the lack of practice stunted their development. All the games and travel made days off more about rest and recovery.

Scott’s team plays just five back-to-backs in the season’s first month. By contrast, the Chicago Bulls have eight, including a stretch of three games in as many nights.

“At the beginning it’s good for us because we need as much time as we can get on the court,” Scott said. “Especially when you have a bunch of young guys like we have. … There are still things have to get more comfortable with in our offense.”

The Cavaliers need to remain relevant for the season’s first six weeks if they hope to keep fans engaged for the outrageous nine-game homestand that begins Feb. 8.

The days of a large season-ticket base are gone. The Cavaliers required fans to make their decision to renew season subscriptions last summer before LeBron James had to make his decision. So despite an NBA-record 26-game losing streak, the Cavs still finished third in home attendance regardless of the no-shows.

It’s believed the club’s season-ticket renewal rate hovers just above 30 percent. A credible start could supply a bump to game-night walkups.

“Everyone understands from the players to coaches that we have to earn that respect back and it’s probably going to take some time,” Scott said. “We’ve got some nice young pieces and our style of play is going to be pretty attractive … but we will have to perform.”

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: treed@plaind.com, 216-999-4370

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The Los Angeles Lakers are looking at former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown as a possible successor to retired coach Phil Jackson, according to ESPN.com.

The Los Angeles Lakers are taking a deliberate approach to their search for a successor to Phil Jackson, but NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com the team has added Mike Brown to its list of candidates.

The former Cleveland Cavaliers coach, now working as an analyst for ESPN, is expected to interview “soon” with the Lakers, sources say.

Brown would become the fourth known candidate for the job, along with former Houston Rockets coach Rick Adelman, ex-Los Angeles Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy and Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, who is regarded as the only serious in-house contender to replace Jackson.

The site says that Brown is considered a leading candidate for the head coaching vacancy at Golden State. Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird said he’s among those being considered for that job, as well.

Brown was dumped by the Cavaliers shortly after the team built around LeBron James fell to the Boston Celtics in the 2010 playoffs. James left the Cavs last summer in a televised special called “The Decision” and “took his talents to South Beach.” James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh decided that together, they could win multiple NBA titles with the Miami Heat.

As of now, the Heat and Chicago Bulls are tied 1-1- in their playoff series.

That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.