Oklahoma City wins series 4-1 (Game 2 of 6)

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Oklahoma City wins series 4-1

9:30 PM ET, May 16, 2012

Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK

Top Performers

Los Angeles: P. Gasol 14 Pts, 11 Reb, 3 Ast

Oklahoma City: K. Durant 22 Pts, 7 Reb, 5 Ast, 2 Stl

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Even down late, the Oklahoma City Thunder are showing that they are never out.

Kevin Durant scored 22 points and rattled in 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 2½ 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 L.A. 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 2:09 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 Los Angeles 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 Russell 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.

Steve Blake missed an open 3-pointer from the right side with about five seconds left after Metta World Peace couldn't get the ball to Bryant on the inbounds play.

Brown said he thought Bryant was open on the back side of the play, but World Peace apparently didn't see him -- agreeing that Bryant was supposed to be the first option.