Thunder has faced playoff adversity before now

Remember it? Remember the Thunder's maiden postseason voyage to Los Angeles, when they came home down 0-2 to a championship-caliber team following one game they let get away from them in the end and another they played from behind all the way?

Sounds familiar, doesn't it.

The Thunder's coach thinks so. He even evoked memories of the 2010 Thunder-Lakers series here Tuesday night following Oklahoma City's 120-111 loss to the Spurs.

“We've been in this situation before with this group once before,” Brooks said. “We've had some history with this.”

A quick refresher: That Thunder team got overpowered inside in Game 1, trailing by as much as 17 points before falling 87-79. In Game 2 the Thunder made Kobe Bryant and Co. sweat out a 95-92.

Then it came home to give Oklahoma City two of the wildest nights of basketball its ever seen and even the series at 2-2. Deep in even the biggest Thunder fans' heart, the outcome of that series was sealed by those two losses in Los Angeles. But the Thunder made it a series, and came without a missed box out and Pau Gasol's tip-in of forcing a Game 7 in Los Angeles.

Fast forward to late Tuesday night, and this are the same and different.

Same because the pattern holds in this series. Game 1 was a nail-bitter the Spurs had to pull out late. Game 2 was theirs from start to finish, but not without some anxious moments.