I don't believe in writing obituaries until there's a body, but the Cavaliers look finished. Done, as in "See you in November" done.
Wednesday night, the Cavaliers gave their all, but it wasn't good enough. Cleveland was out-rebounded, was out-shot from three-point range and out-shot period.
It's apparently a decided lack of defense, something that plagued the Cavs in the regular season, that's doing them in now.
There are a lot of things that separate what's happening in these NBA Finals and what happened last year, but the difference keeps coming back to one: Kevin Durant.
Wednesday night, Durant was terrific again, this time dropping 31 on the Cavaliers. That's on the heels of hitting Cleveland for 38 and 33 in the first two games. Durant was 10 for 18 from the field.
Here's the real problem for the Cavs: Lebron James could not have played better than he did Wednesday night. He was one assist shy of a triple double. His 39 points came on 15 of 27 shooting. And some of those shots were spectacular.
Kyrie Irving was strong too, with 38 points on 16 of 29 shooting. But the Cavs got nothing else -- from anyone.
J.R. Smith had a quiet 16 points. The Cavaliers' bench logged 56 man-minutes, and it accounted for just 11 points -- three of those on free throws.
The Warriors bench went eight deep, and although it delivered just 23 points, it logged 74 man-minutes, saving the Golden State starters valuable minutes that will come in handy in game four.
Three games have been played in this series, all Golden State wins. The Cavaliers, despite being down just seven in Game 3 and three in Game 2, haven't been competitive in any of those games.
It's extremely difficult to sweep a four-game series in any sport. It's very difficult to get swept in a four-game series. But that's what this is smelling like today.
I said Warriors in six before it began. I'll stick with it, but I'd be shocked now if it doesn't end in five.
Here's the sobering thought for Cavaliers fans: No NBA team has ever won a Finals series after being down 3-0. In fact, only three teams have forced a seventh game after trailing 3-0. The last to do it was Portland, in 2003. The Dallas Mavericks eventually won that series.
Now for some random thoughts on this random Thursday:
Scooter Gennett had a career in one night this week. His four home runs and his 10 RBI against the Cardinals this week will forever secure his spot in Cincinnati Reds lore. He's the first player ever to have five hits with four of them home runs and 10 RBI in a Major League game, but it highlights something else that's going on in baseball.
Scooter Gennett runs the bases as the crowd cheers after hitting his fourth home run on Tuesday. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Chicks aren't the only ones who dig the long ball. So do Major League Baseball general managers. Because this is how the game is changing. Scott Schebler has become a modern-day Adam Dunn -- lots of power at the expense of average. Although the chance of Gennett repeating what did he did against the Cardinals is slim, the odds of it happening again for anyone aren't as long as you'd think.
Baseballs have been flying out of Major League parks with alacrity this season. As Peter Botte of the New York Daily News pointed out in the wake of Gennett's big night, this season has produced 1.23 home runs per game, per team so far this season. That, according to Botte is a 43 percent increase in home runs since 2014.
Is MLB "juicing" baseballs? Actually, no.
Ben Lindbergh, a seasoned baseball writer who now writes for The Ringer, points to a study done under the auspice of MLB that shows the balls haven't been tampered with. We know baseball has cracked down on players "juicing up." Lindberg points to batters swinging at pitches lower in the strike zone (and out of it in some cases) and the ball speed coming off the bat.
Botte also makes a great point about marketing. More home runs appeal to more fans, which means more tickets are sold and more interest is generated in baseball.
Homer Bailey will finally throw in a professional baseball game for the first time since Tommy John surgery this Friday night in Pensacola. Anthony DeSclafani won't pitch until mid-August at the earliest. He's still not ready, trying to rehab a strained ulnar collateral ligament rather than have to go through the same surgery as Bailey.
The Reds are fresh off sweeping four from the Cardinals. They're two and a half games off the National League Central lead. Imagine that division race if the Reds had some semblance of a Major League starting pitching rotation!
Ohio State did Thad Matta wrong -- not by the act of firing him, but by the way they fired him.
Ohio State's basketball program has fallen on bad times lately. It's missed the NCAA Tournament each of the last two years and hasn't been a top-tier Big 10 team in a while.
It's obvious the defection of 2018 verbal commit Darius Bazley, of Princeton High School, was a mitigating factor for OSU Athletic Director to "review the program."
Thirty-nine years ago today, a little bit of music history was made. The Rolling Stones released their album "Some Girls" and that album spawned this hit.
Some Stones fans didn't like the disco drift the band was taking, but Charlie Watts did. The Stones drummer is convinced this 1978 song's drum beat inspired dozens of disco-era drummers. That might have been among the reasons why this song hit No. 1 in 1978.
It was written entirely by Mick Jagger with input from the legendary keyboardist Billy Preston. The harmonica is played by a New York City musician, James Whiting, who goes by the name "Sugar Blue."
There was some controversy in the artwork on the album cover, when artist Peter Corriston used unlicensed images of Lucille Ball, Liza Minelli and others. Those original albums, now very valuable, were quickly replaced by a series of non-identifiable women.
And like this song that reached the Billboard Top 100 singles, the album itself reached the top of Billboard's 200.
