The Miami Heat finished off the Thunder in Game 5 by finally putting all of their pieces together and running away in the second half.

As I entered the Thunder locker room last night, at first, I couldn't tell they had lost. Everybody looked just like they did after the previous two finals losses in Miami. But after talking to some of the players, I felt the despair sink in.

It's over. The playoff run, the dominance over the Mavericks, Lakers, and Spurs, all of that ran square into the massive back of Heat #6 and there was no way around it.

Congratulations to the Miami Heat for winning the title against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Miami left no doubts lingering in the end and finished off the Thunder 4-1. Congratulations to Heat fans and especially to the folks at the Heat site Peninsula is Mightier. They have great reason to celebrate.

Here we are. The Thunder are staring at a 3-1 deficit and heading into the belly of the beast on Miami's home court.

The Thunder are in for a mighty challenge tonight. As they prepare mentally and physically, I thought it would be prudent to get appropriately amped up by watching and reflecting on some of the great battle speeches from both cinema and actual history.

If you watched the ending of Game 4, you saw it. No, not Russell Westbrook's costly foul, but James Harden looking like a James Harden impostor.

Bill Simmons tackled the Russell Westbrook's Game 4 adventure in his latest column. It is well worth a read, not because he breaks any new ground, but because sometimes it takes an outsider to provide a less biased analysis to understand what we're watching.

Game 4 of the NBA Finals did not end the way that we had hoped. The Thunder had their chances once again, and just like in Games 2 and 3 the Heat were able to win all the critical battles while the Thunder came up just short. We are left with even more 'what-if's.'

Relive the prelude, beginning, climax, and painful ending of Game 4. We will always have Russell Westbrook and his "kill the wedding party" run through the Heat defense. Sadly, we will also always have his tragic mistake in the end.

SB Nation's Ben Golliver breaks down Game 4 for us, in all its hopeful, panic-inducing, exciting, and heartbreaking detail.

The Heat defeated the Thunder last night and claimed a 3-1 lead in the 2012 NBA Finals.

For the first time in the entire series the Thunder started out the game playing their own brand of basketball. They were pushing the tempo, forcing the Heat into long-range shots, built and early lead, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought we might be getting a replay of Game 3 against the Spurs.

The Thunder must go into Game 4 tonight looking to attack early and often to put the Heat on its heels.

We are now a few hours away from tonight's 2012 NBA Finals Game 4, a game between the Thunder and Heat that will go a long way in telling us how this series will evolve.

The NBA offers up its micro-movie for the 2012 NBA Finals' Game 3. We all felt really good about how the Thunder were able to avoid the early game jitters, and managed to take a brief lead in the 2nd quarter. Hopes were lifted when OKC went on one of its 3rd quarter runs, building a double-digit lead. But then...well, you know.