10. The Cavs would not win a playoff series again for another 16 years.
Perhaps the main reason why the Miracle of Richfield attained such mythical status in Cleveland was because the Cavs would go through varying degrees of heartbreak, futility and misery for close to two decades thereafter. A first-round ouster by the Bullets the following year and the New York Knicks in 1978 was followed by the lamentable Ted Stepien era, and four postseason trips from 1985 to 1990 were also short-lived.
Not until a 3-1 triumph over the New Jersey Nets in 1992, followed by a seven-game elimination of the Celtics in what turned out to be the end of Larry Bird’s career, did the Cavs regain the feeling of success. Two years later, they moved out of the Coliseum to downtown Cleveland.
