NBA Finals: Thunder has overcome much, but it must now overcome doubt

But this is unchartered territory, the biggest tests yet for Oklahoma City's basketball team. What the Thunder now must overcome is doubt.

Not doubters. Scott Brooks and Co. know precisely what to do with doubters: Tune them out, stick with the plan and trust the results.

The results have been historic for the second-youngest team ever to reach the NBA Finals. And the list of fallacies they've exposed along the way — that Russell Westbrook isn't a point guard, that this was the Spurs', not the Thunder's, time — is as long as Kevin Durant's arms.

Another one bit the dust here Sunday night. Raise your hand if you still believe Kendrick Perkins (10 points, 12 rebounds in Game 3) has no place in this series. Perk was only the Thunder's most effective player with the ball in his hands. Granted, that says something about what else was going on, but still.

Perk was good in Game 3. He belongs, OK? So does the Thunder.

But can OKC win it all? Its 91-85 loss to the Heat Sunday night stirred some doubt, had to. And they wouldn't be human if the men in Thunder uniforms didn't at least wonder themselves.

“We put ourselves in position to win,” Durant said several times in the postgame, without a ton of conviction.

For the first time in this exhilarating four-year run from 23 wins to the NBA Finals, we saw signs that The Moment may actually be bigger than the Thunder. We saw it in its play, and in the players' eyes.

How can they not wonder after seeing veteran, championship players like Derek Fisher make rookie mistakes, plowing into James Jones beyond the 3-point arc, sending Miami to the line for six free throws in two possessions? When Serge Ibaka does it to Shane Battier you halfway understand. Ibaka gets off the bus trying to block everything and he's spent a week listening to everyone say what a bad matchup Battier is for him. And he's 22.