OKC Thunder vs. Mavericks: Thunder must close out games

What stings is the way it happened.

Frankly, the Thunder collapsed in the final two contests.

In Game 4, Dallas outscored OKC 28-6 to steal a seven-point overtime win on the Thunder's home floor. In Game 5, the Mavs put the finishing touches on the series with a second late-game surge, a 17-6 spurt in that one.

Both games were offensive disasters for the Thunder. And as the curtain is lifted on the rematch in an opening-round series, no one is quite sure those same ills won't pop up again.

The Thunder, for now, is going in saying the right things.

“After that Game 4, when we were up 15 and we lost, it just taught us that every possession late in the game is key,” said Kevin Durant. “We can't give away possessions. We can't think that since we're up it's not important to execute. We got to take good shots. I think we'll do a better job. Hopefully we do a better job if we're in that position again. We'll see what happens.”

The disturbing thing is that throughout the regular season, we saw flashes of the Thunder's inability to close out games with crisp offensive production. Three of the final four regular season defeats were a result of poor offensive execution. In fact, Oklahoma City finished the regular season ranked 19th in efficiency in the last minute of two-point games.

“Offensive droughts often times come from a lack of execution and not getting the shot that you want,” said Derek Fisher. “I think that's an area where we have the opportunity to improve a great deal, and so that in the second half of games and down the stretch in big games, which every playoff game will be, you have the ability to execute. Get the ball where you want to get it to and have proper spacing on the floor.

“Those are things that Scotty has continued to focus on throughout the season. But with limited practice time and limited days in between games, I think you did see that slippage in a young team like ours. Hopefully in this postseason, having a day in between each game and playing the same team, there will be some things we can focus on in terms of our execution offensively.”