Kid Clutch

Even down late, the Oklahoma City Thunder are showing that they are never out. Kevin Durant scored 22 points and rattled the go-ahead basket on a baseline runner with 18 seconds left, and the Thunder scored the final nine points to rally for a 77-75 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday night.

Oklahoma City trailed by seven with two minutes left before surging back with a series of defensive stops by its stars to claw back from that deficit in the closing stages of a game for the second time this postseason. The Thunder were also seven down with two minutes left in Game 1 against defending NBA champion Dallas in the first round.

"They won't quit. That's not in their DNA," coach Scott Brooks said. "They're not wired that way and if they were, they wouldn't be here. We're not going to win every game, but we're going to fight to the last second of the game and we did that tonight."

"If we would have gotten down on ourselves with two minutes to go, we would have lost by 12 and we would go to LA 1-1."

Instead, OKlahoma City takes a 2-0 lead into Game 3 on Friday night at Staples Center.

Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum scored 20 points apiece for the Lakers, who came up empty on their last six possessions after Bynum's hook shot made it 75-68 with 2:08 remaining.

After struggling throughout the second half and missing 20 of their first 27 shots, the Thunder suddenly came alive after Brooks called timeout following Bynum's basket that gave LA its largest lead of the game.

James Harden drove for a layup before Durant used his height advantage to reach up and tip away a pass from Bryant, who he was guarding. Durant ran out for a right handed dunk at the other end before Russel Westbrook forced another turnover by aggressively challenging an outlet pass to Bryant along the sideline.

Harden made the next stop, blocking Bryant's jumper on the next Lakers possession and getting a layup in transition off it to cut the deficit to one in the final minute.

Bryant couldn't connect again, this time on a 3-pointer, to give the Thunder the ball back with the chance to take the lead and Durant was able to make it happen. "I wish it was my magical words. All I told the guys was, 'We're down seven. You don't have to play perfect basketball, but we better come pretty close,'" Brooks said.

At one point when the Thunder were up one point, Steve Blake for the Lakers missed a wide open three pointer off of an outlet pass by Metta World Peace. Mike Brown stated in postgame interviews that he thought Bryant was open and that World Peace must have not seen him.

Mike Brown claimed that his team "...has a lot of basketball left in them." If you ask me, I'd say they have about eight quarters.

This series is starting to have the same tone as the first series with the Mavericks. This Game 2 loss for the Lakers has to be very de-motivating. On the other side, the Thunder are rolling with of all of the momentum in the world and they are also showing that they can win in different ways.

Unlike a certain player that shall not be named (rhymes with 'Sheshon Shames'), Kevin Durant is turning into a 4th quarter power house. The people of OKC like to call him "Kid Clutch." I find that name appropriate.

Game 2 Stat Leaders for OKC

PTS- K. Durant 22

REB- K. Durant 7

AST- K. Durant 5

STL- 2 tied at 2

BLK- S. Ibaka 7