Sports Today: Rollercoaster Reds, bad Buckeye basketball news, Warriors rally

Concerned? Maybe, though that depends on your mindset.

HAL MCCOY: Wrapping up a lost weekend by the bay

Bottom line, as Jeff Brantley said on the radio broadcast yesterday, is a young team is going to have ups and downs. (And while they were pummeled yesterday, the Friday and Saturday losses easily could have gone the other way.)

“Concern” is probably related to how good you think this team can be. Given the preseason predictions, it will be hard for them to disappoint many people when all is said and done.

Hitting mid-May over .500 is nice. I always say in years they aren’t likely to be real championship contenders, at least get me to Bengals training camp.

That’s still a ways off, but this team has shown some signs it can remain relevant for a while.

The lineup has a lot to like, though any offense is going to endure some bad stretches.

The bullpen legitimately has at least three very reliable players, but the rotation is quite simply a disaster.

Health has played a role in the latter, as it did again Sunday when Tim Adleman’s neck limited him to one ineffective inning.

There have been too many leaks for manager Bryan Price to plug with the fingers on one hand, which you can interpret as there being plenty of potential if only a couple more guys get healthy or a sign of more bad days ahead.

Maybe it’s both…

Ohio State basketball lost another player over the weekend. Or last month. 

Well, actually it was sort of both.

Jaquan Lyle got into trouble in Evansville, Ind., over the weekend, and local reporting of the incident revealed the now-former Ohio State point guard quite the team on April 11.

OK.

Lyle’s exit can be interpreted a couple of ways.

If you're the optimistic type who hasn't been watching Buckeye basketball the last 5-6 years, you could say a veteran like Lyle could have been on the verge of breaking out with two seasons under his belt.

LAND OF 10: Ohio State basketball sinks closer to the bottom, two more Buckeyes get NFL draft love and more

More likely he would have come back and been the same inconsistent player who could single-handedly win or lose a game for a team without an overwhelming amount of talent. This is particularly problematic for a coach who must have a ball-dominant guard or NBA post player to succeed.

Maybe this will be a matter of addition by subtraction. Perhaps others will flourish with a greater opportunity.

I have a feeling this won’t have an effect on the NCAA tournament status next March, though.

RELATED: Another year justifiable for Thad Matta, but trends are hard to ignore

Also worth noting, as Jim Naveau of the Lima News did, its interesting he was off the team for a month and nobody really noticed.

Says a lot about the attention being paid to and interest in the team, although Matta's program has never been one prone to many leaks (much smaller universe than the one orbiting a football team with 100-plus players, large support staff, etc.).

And this serves as another reminder basketball is just not that high a priority for many Ohio State fans, so maybe that's why the school felt it didn't need an arena built for that particular sport…

The NBA Western Conference Finals started yesterday with a surprising result. Almost. 

The Golden State Warriors rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat the Spurs 113-111 in Game 1.

The Spurs weren’t the same after Kawhi Leonard aggravated an ankle injury.

The impact of the opponent losing its best player obviously can’t be overstated, but this was still an opportunity to see what kind of level the reworked Warriors can reach with Kevin Durant having joined GS’s big three. It takes a lot to outscore a team by 27 points over any stretch of an NBA game.

Tonight brings a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference semifinals as the Wizards and Celtics square off for the right to play Cleveland…