NBA Finals 2012: What Thunder Must Do to Bring Series Back to OKC

The Oklahoma City Thunder are on the verge of elimination and face the Miami Heat tonight in a must-win Game 5 tonight in South Beach.

In order to come through with a victory and return the NBA Finals to OKC, the Thunder have got to step up, make plays and, most importantly, make adjustments.

Here are a few things to look for that the Thunder must do in order to extend the series.

Get Kevin Durant Involved Early and Often

Durant is the key to this series and he needs to take the most shots, score the most points and be the primary offensive weapon for the Thunder.

Russell Westbrook took over that role last game and did an admirable job, but the Thunder still lost.

Durant is a natural scorer that can put the ball in the basket at a high percentage from anywhere on the floor. If he gets hot early, the Thunder will feed off that for the rest of the game.

Lock Down LeBron James

LeBron has played like the league MVP he is for the past three games and has made the Heat nearly unstoppable.

Coach Scott Brooks has to think of innovative ways to stop King James in order to slow him down and force the rest of the Heat to beat his team. He should start by pulling tape from the Boston Celtics' archives, as they did an admirable job (for the most part, Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals is a notable exception) of containing James.

Throwing multiple defenders and different types of defense at LBJ will pay dividends in this series.

Fundamental Basketball

The Thunder need to get back to the basics and hit free throws, box out on rebounds and make open looks.

They would have easily won Game 4 had they been able to shoot better from the charity stripe as a team and had a few more James Harden shots go down.

It’s not easy to get back to the basics when there is so much pressure and a rocking crowd on the road, but OKC must find a way to do the little things correctly.