"Everyone in American Airlines Center kept looking over at the scorer's table in the fourth quarter.

Time kept ticking. Nine minutes left, six minutes, three minutes left. The Thunder clung to a lead that wavered between tense and perilous, and eyes kept drifting to that table.

Surely Russell Westbrook would return. Surely he would bring some fellow starters with him.

But Scotty Brooks never pulled the trigger. And it earned him the Thunder's biggest win ever.

The Thunder stunned the high-riding Dallas Mavericks 106-100 Thursday night to even the Western Conference Finals at one game apiece. And the Thunder did it with Kevin Durant and the B team.

Durant, Eric Maynor, James Harden, Nick Collison and Daequan Cook played the entire fourth quarter, until Collison fouled out with 36.7 seconds left in the game. The only other Thunder substitution came with Thabo Sefolosha's return with 12.7 seconds left, for defensive purposes.

The Thunder's biggest win, and Brooks' finest hour. The vanilla coach talks in clichés, but he proved Thursday night he lives by some of the stuff he says.

That jargon about believing in all his players? What could prove it more than sticking with reserves with the season on the line?"