Cleveland Cavs. It's over

You've got to give the Cavs credit for what they've accomplished this year. They're in the NBA Finals. This, despite an apparently clueless coach in David Blatt, and a rash of injuries to key players.

Lebron James is often said to be the "best player on the planet". He might well be, except a whole lot of knowledgeable basketball people disagreed with that over the past season. After all, Steph Curry was voted MVP of the league, and James Harden came in second. It's pretty tough to claim you're the best in the world when your peers don't think you're in the Top 2 in your own league. And who knows? Maybe there's some 8 foot wundkerkind hoopster in Bangladesh or the Amazon rain forest that can put them all to shame but hasn't been discovered yet.

Nevertheless, the Cavs can now pretty much kiss any thoughts of winning this year's NBA title good-bye. Star guard Kyrie Irving is out for the remainder of the series with a broken left kneecap.

One should remember that the Cleveland Cavs were already playing seriously short-handed. After all, big man Anderson Varejao and prized free agent acquisition Kevin Love had already gone down for the season.

And Golden State did have the best record in the entire league over the regular season in a much tougher western conference. Besides that, the Warriors are healthy and held home court advantage. They were rightfully favored to win the Finals anyway.

With the additional loss of Irving, it's become almost reminiscent of Lebron's first go-round in Cleveland. Sure, he can single-handedly dominate a game, because he's just -- that -- good. But against a championship caliber team, one guy can't get it done.

To his credit, Warriors' head coach Steve Kerr has employed a clever strategy. Like with James Harden of the Houston Rockets in the western conference finals, Kerr refused to double-cover Lebron. These guys are going to get 30 points anyway, so put a single tenacious defender on them and make them work hard for them. In the meantime, take away all the easy passes that led to lay-ups and dunks by their teammates. If they get 40+ as Lebron did in Game 1 of the Finals, so be it. But don't give their teammates any gimmes.

Granted, the Cavs took the Warriors to overtime in Game 1 before falling, hardly a blow-out, but the loss of Irving in the process is likely a fatal blow to any hopes of a title. Never say never when it comes to Lebron, but if he and whoever's left on the Cleveland roster can win 4 out of the next 6 against a Golden State team firing on all cylinders -- it would be a monumental upset.

Given the latest turn of events, this series might well wind up being a sweep. Lebron's going to do superhuman duty and might score 40 or 50 a game, but without sufficient help, it won't be nearly enough. Golden State is just too good all over the court.

What will be interesting is next year. Assuming Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao, and Kevin Love return and are 100% healthy, and given they will have had another season to "gel" as a team -- plus the bench has been getting invaluable experience this year due to injuries against high-caliber competition -- King James might well win a title for his beloved Cleveland.

But it ain't gonna happen this year. They're still good, but when Kyrie went down, so did Cleveland's last hope.

Turn out the lights, get the fat lady warmed up, and bring on Yogi Berra to declare it official.

It's pretty much over.....