The 2003–04 NBA season was the 34th season of the National Basketball Association in Cleveland, Ohio. In the years following their 1998 first-round playoff loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Cavaliers dropped to the bottom of the league and became a perennial entrant in the annual NBA Draft Lottery. The franchise's freefall bottomed out during the 2002–03 season, as the Cavs fell to a 17–65 record, tied with the Denver Nuggets for the league's worst.