Thunder vs. Lakers: Westbrook and Durant Push Lakers to Brink of Elimination

After scaring every Oklahoma City Thunder fan at the end of the first half of Game 4, Russell Westbrook rose slowly to his feet and walked off the Staples Center court on his own power.

When he returned in the second half, he continued his dominance that he has displayed throughout this year's playoffs and carried the Thunder on his back for the majority of the final 24 minutes.

And when it was time to put the final nail in the coffin, Kevin Durant waved his teammates away, rose up and fired one of those beautiful trademark jump shots over Metta World Peace to inch the Thunder one step closer to another appearance in the Western Conference Finals.

As for the Los Angeles Lakers, the door on their 2012 season is closely coming to a "thunderous" close.

Despite being doubled in offensive rebounds (18-9) and having a tough time getting to the line through the first three quarters, the Thunder fought back from a 13-point, fourth-quarter deficit for a 103-100 win in Game 4 to take a 3-1 series lead and push the Lakers one loss away from another second-round exit.

The Lakers seemed to be in complete control. Kobe Bryant was shooting over 50 percent, the Los Angeles big men were crashing the boards with ease and even World Peace was making it look easy on the offensive end.

But when the second half began, everybody and their mother knew that it wasn't going to be an easy two quarters for the Lakers with the Thunder becoming the masters of the playoff comeback this year.

When Westbrook went down awkwardly to end the first half, Thunder fans held their collective breath as he sat on the court in what seemed like a painful moment. All game long, the fact of changing the courts between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Lakers would provide a slippery surface in running the court.

But the young All-Star point guard immediately showed no signs of pain, as he erupted for 13 points in the third quarter and cut the Lakers' lead to single digits as OKC entered the fourth down by nine. Westbrook added 10 more points in the fourth for a 23-point second half to keep the Thunder in the game.

Then three-time scoring champion Durant put his stamp on Game 4 with a fantastic fourth quarter.

After not making it to the free throw line until 23 seconds left in the third quarter, Durant made attacking the basket priority No. 1 by going to the charity stripe eight times in the fourth and making six attempts.

Then after getting a steal off an awful Pau Gasol pass, the best closer in the NBA showed the world why he owns that label by draining a three-pointer in World Peace's face, sending the fans in attendance to a complete state of shock.

In a blink of an eye, the Thunder put themselves one game away from completing their path to redemption over the Lakers from three years ago.

Oklahoma City completed its fifth fourth-quarter comeback Saturday night with this win and have once again proved to the world that it's going to take an entire 48 minutes to defeat this team. It's a given that if any team wants to beat OKC, they can't step off the gas for one second.

Not one team, not even the San Antonio Spurs (for those of you who were angry with me for not mentioning them the last time I wrote about the Thunder).

The funeral services for this year's Lakers are just about complete and ready for the annual proceedings. After recovering from a disappointing Game 3 performance, the Thunder now hold all the momentum in this series once again and are ready to close out the Lakers in front of their home crowd.

L.A.'s offense in the final five minutes is too reliant on Bryant, and it's understandable why. But if he's not making shots and continues to take very difficult attempts, it's going to be an easy fourth quarter for OKC in Game 5.

With the way Westbrook and Durant are playing right now, along with the contributions from James Harden and company, this series is almost as good as done come Monday.

As for beyond this series, you can argue amongst yourselves what will happen.