Oklahoma City has made drastic improvement the past two months, but a 2-15 record in games decided by six points or less is like a flashing neon sign.

"In the NBA, there are a lot of close games," said Oklahoma City's Nick Collison. "The teams on top win most of those. That's the last step for this team."

Despite two tough calls in the final seconds, the Thunder still had a chance to win with 5.3 seconds left. Instead, Oklahoma City settled for Kevin Durant's 27-foot desperation shot that hit the back of the rim.

On the play, the Thunder inbounded the ball to Russell Westbrook, who stood still, waiting for Durant to fight around a double-team.

"They did a good job of switching," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "We probably could have got a better play. We can come up with a better play than that. They did a good job defensively."

Some of the 18,332 fans justifiably will focus on two late-game calls that proved critical.

But the bottom line is Oklahoma City owned a 17-point lead at one point, led 70-59 at halftime and didn't make enough clutch plays at the end to win.

"That's part of who we are right now," Brooks said. "Guys continue to fight, continue to believe in each other. I'm proud of our guys' effort. That's a heck of a Basketball team. The Nuggets are an offensive machine, (even without) Chauncey (Billups)."

To the Thunder's credit, after falling behind 106-102, they fought back to take three separate leads the final three minutes, including 113-112 with 17.2 seconds left on Durant's driving layup.

"Sometimes it just hasn't gone our way with people making tough shots on us and us not making shots," Durant said. "But sooner or later they're going to start to fall."