NBA Finals: Kevin Durant says Thunder has Oklahoma's 'never give up' mentality

A 3-1 series hole hung over the Thunder's head like the blanket of clouds that have swept in and stolen South Beach's scenic nature the past two days.

History says this team is staring at an insurmountable deficit. No team has ever come back to win the championship when trailing 3-1 in the NBA Finals. Thirty teams have tried. Thirty teams have failed.

Since the NBA Finals adopted the 2-3-2 format in 1985, all 13 teams that have taken a 3-1 series lead have gone on to win the title.

And when the Miami Heat exited American Airlines Arena, making way for the Thunder to take the court for its late afternoon practice, it felt like only a matter of time before the Thunder became the 14th team to fall.

NBA greats Charles Barkley, Chris Mullin and Jalen Rose all went on record Wednesday as saying this series is over. Their opinions matched many.

The only people who still seem to believe are, well, the Thunder.

“We know that it's a new day and anything can happen,” said Kevin Durant. “It's not over. You got to keep fighting and we're going to fight to the end no matter what.”

Durant continued.

“That's the type of DNA we have here,” he said. “That's Oklahoma City as a city, Oklahoma as a state and the Thunder as a team. We're going to fight to the end.”

Nearly every Thunder player, as well as coach Scott Brooks, acknowledged on Wednesday that the team now has its back against the wall. Both history and the Heat have proved to be tall hurdles. The Thunder, though, is ignoring the history and focusing on how it plays against the Heat in Game 5 on Thursday night.

“It's not about numbers,” Brooks said. “It's about how hard you're willing to work, how much heart and desire you put forth and how you do it together collectively as a team. We have a group of guys that do that night in and night out.”

Just ask the San Antonio Spurs.

The Thunder, many thought, was dead in the water in the Western Conference Finals. Oklahoma City fell into a 2-0 hole in that series, blowing an opportunity to steal Game 1, before bouncing back to win four straight to advance. Yet before those four straight victories, the masses wrote off the Thunder as toast. Only 14 of 246 teams in NBA history had ever come back to win a best-of-7 series when trailing 2-0 — a 94 percent failure rate.

OKC beat the odds.

How?

“Staying together,” said Russell Westbrook. “Just keep fighting, keep going at it. Keep coming in and working every day. I think that's what we did. Watch film, learn from our mistakes, what we need to do to win the game and that helped us out.”