Sports Today: LeBron gets surly, Reds rotation still struggling, Dragons keep rolling

The Cavaliers still lead the series 2-1, and the Celtics still have basically no chance to make the Finals because their best player, Isaiah Thomas, is out for the postseason with a nasty-sounding hip injury.

Because Cleveland is obviously aware of this, it’s not hard to imagine they didn’t take this game all that seriously. The Cavs still looked like they were going to cruise to another win after scorching the nets in the first half, but the Celtics got hot in the second half and pulled out the win.

Kudos to them. Clunkers happen. Sweeps are hard. NBD, right?

Well not so fast.

LeBron James, who scored only 11 points while handing out six assists and grabbing six rebounds, took exception to a completely fair question from veteran northeast Ohio media man Kenny Roda and made sure we’d all have something to talk about today.

As great as LeBron is on the court, he still has a tendency to turn things around the wrong way off it on a fairly regular basis.

I don’t blame him for not wanting to answer the question (he had already said he played poorly and took the blame for the loss), but there’s no need to make it personal.

Not that this is important in the grand scheme of things, but his occasional prickliness does make it harder to embrace him fully even as The Decision fades farther and farther into the past.

At least this time it produced a storyline other than how he compares to Michael Jordan, so maybe there was a method to his madness...

The Cincinnati Reds played a first-place team at Great American Ball Park over the weekend and dropped two of three. 

They got three more bad starts from the beleaguered pitching rotation, although one could make the argument none of the trio of Lisalverto Bonilla, Tim Adleman or Bronson Arroyo would be in the rotation if things were going according to plan.

Arroyo allowed four homers and six runs total in 5 1/3 innings yesterday before Robert Stephenson and Blake Wood shut out the Rockies over the last 3 2/3.

RELATED: Arroyo knows he's running out of time to prove he belongs 

Meanwhile, the offense keeps clicking, and the bullpen is usually pretty solid.

With positive reports over the weekend on Homer Bailey, Anthony DeSclafani and Brandon Finnegan, help could be on the way.

That will probably be too late for this season, but they need to get a good idea of what they have for 2018 as there are some assets that could be moved as strengths and weaknesses emerge…

Tonight the Cleveland Indians are in town for a two-game series, which is of course ridiculous. 

Congrats to MLB for continuing to take one of the few good things about the completely played out concept of interleague play — regional rivalries — and giving as little of it to fans as possible.

They are so committed to this concept they will subvert the schedule with unnaturally short series. Good times.

Anyway, if you haven’t been paying attention to the American League (why would you, right?), the reigning AL pennant winners have had a bit of a rocky road given their expectations.

However, they head south tied with the Minnesota Twins for first place in the AL Central after winning three in a row.

And, yes, the Reds are still outdrawing them at the box office…

Meanwhile, those Dayton Dragons keep bringing it every night. 

They produced the first nine-inning no-hitter in franchise history Saturday night against the Bowling Green Hot Rods and remain in first place in the Midwest League Eastern division through 43 games.

Center fielder T.J. Friedl is the team’s leading hitter at .291, and he has 13 doubles and nine steals.

Tyler Stephenson, the catcher who was Cincinnati’s first-round draft choice two years ago, is hitting .290 and is two RBIs off the MWL lead with 30.

RELATED: After cousin Archie Miller left for Indiana, Friedl finds home with Dragons