Video Vault: Lakers beat Cavs and a lake at Richfield Coliseum

RICHFIELD, Ohio - Jan., 12, 1982, the Cavs were to face off with the Los Angeles Lakers at the Richfield Coliseum but before they could play the Lakers, they had to deal with a lake.

Two pipes burst during the night before the game and Coliseum workers cleaned up the mess, including hand-drying the $17,000 basketball floor to keep it from warping.

WEWS sports reporter Howard Sudberry was at the Coliseum to cover the Lakers’ shoot-around and did the flooding story for us as well.

Howard left WEWS in 1984 for WBBM in Chicago, where he anchored sports until 2009.

Our video player contains Howard’s story on the flood clean up followed by a very young Magic Johnson spewing sports clichés like, “Their record might be bad, but they still have talent” and “any given night they can come up with a big game” about being wary of the Cavs.

The Cavs were 6–27 and the Lakers 25–10 before the game.

The Lakers practiced at the Coliseum practice courts in the upper floors of the former basketball home of the Cavs. The Lakers very talented roster included Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kurt Rambis.

Game footage is next. The Coliseum was only partially-filled; yes the Lakers were a draw, but the way owner Ted Stepien went through coaches and draft choices made apathy a very big obstacle for fans to make the trek to Richfield.

The Lakers won 114-100 on the way to becoming NBA champs that season.

Finally, Howard is back with piece on injured Cav Scott Wedman and some thoughts on new coach Chuck Daly. Daly, who went on to lead the Detroit Pistons to two NBA championships, lasted just a half-season on the Stepien coaching merry-go-round.