SALT LAKE CITY -- Just when I thought the Thunder had erased every reason to doubt they can win a playoff series -- the usual suspicions such as "too young," "too inexperienced," "defense not tight enough" -- they got served a big reminder of why they likely won't get past the first round: They won't get the calls from the officials.

I hate to talk about the officiating as the key to any series. I hate to talk about it in any game. But it's unavoidable after a no-call at the end of overtime in a wildly entertaining game, when Utah's C.J. Miles hit Kevin Durant on the forearm while Durant was attempting a game-winning 3-pointer. The ball fell well short of the basket and Utah escaped with a 140-139 victory.

The outcome had enormous repercussions in the skinny jeans-tight Western Conference standings, allowing the Jazz (51-27) to break free of a four-team cluster and temporarily claim second place. The Thunder (48-29) fell to seventh.

Official Tony Brothers watched the play unfold and didn't blow his whistle. He didn't do much of anything afterward, standing there while Durant howled at him and Thunder coach Scott Brooks stomped angrily toward midcourt, then turned to block Durant from advancing. The Thunder players and coaches glared at the officials, who remained on their end of the court, the scene looking like the staredown before the news crews rumble in "Anchorman." Then the Thunder finally retreated to their locker room.

This is one of the challenges set before the Thunder. It's the league's Catch-22. Established teams are going to get the calls … but how can a team become established if the calls go against it? It won't happen for the Thunder this year. They'll have to embark on their maiden playoff voyage without radar, sonar or GPS. Good luck with that.

At least they had the smarts not to deepen their plight by getting a reputation as whiners in the media. They said all the right things to the reporters afterward, sticking with the un-fineable lines that whatever the officials say has to stand.

"It's not a foul if they didn't call it," Durant said.

"The referee didn't call a foul," Brooks said. "You've got to go with him. We didn't get a stop. That is the bottom line."

And that's one of the reasons the Thunder found themselves down in the first place. Two defensive breakdowns led to Utah's final two baskets. First, Durant switched on to Deron Williams, who gave up the ball, then ran along the baseline and out to the right corner. Durant lost track of him in the lane, leaving Williams wide open to catch a pass from Wesley Matthews and drain a 3-pointer with 48 seconds remaining in overtime. But the Thunder regained the lead -- the 12th lead change of the game -- on two Durant free throws followed by Jeff Green's running bank shot with five seconds remaining.

Then the Thunder misread Utah's inbound play: Green and Thabo Sefolosha thought Boozer would come down and set a screen on Williams; instead, Williams came up to get the ball from Boozer and squeezed around him and Green was late switching out on Williams. Williams hit a 20-footer to put the Jazz ahead with 1.1 seconds left.

The Thunder defense was loose all night, susceptible to everything from Utah's middle screen-and-rolls to Williams' penetration. Williams scored a career-high 42 points and the Jazz posted their highest total in almost 20 years. The Jazz were the fourth consecutive opponent to score at least 100 points against the Thunder, whose tremendous turnaround this season was initially predicated on defense.

Lately they've simply decided to outgun everybody. It might keep working until someone finds a way to stop Durant. Or until the playoffs.

This isn't the typical blueprint for playoff success. Ask the Phoenix Suns.

But the Thunder do have a resolve that will serve them well in the postseason. They trailed by 13 points with 4½ minutes left in the fourth quarter and by 11 with three minutes to go, but Durant kept pumping in 3-pointers and the Thunder came back to force overtime thanks to a 3 by Green with 8.3 seconds left off a pass from Durant.

"That's the fight that we have," said Thunder guard Russell Westbrook. "As a team, we continue to fight. We've been doing it all year long."

Their resourcefulness shows in how difficult they are to put away; their inexperience is reflected in their record in close games. They're 7-10 in games decided by three points or less, and they're 1-4 in overtime.

All that's going against them. Then again, they do have Durant on their side. Right now there's nothing any team can do about him. Durant scored 45 points, dropped 7 of 13 3-pointers and made all 12 free throws.

He moved past LeBron James to become the NBA's scoring leader Tuesday night. But apparently he has not yet reached the elevated status at which he would get a call on the road at the end of the game.

The only good development from the disappointing ending for the Thunder? If these seedings hold, the teams would face each other in the first round, and who wouldn't want some more of this? The Thunder came within a bucket of sweeping their regular-season series with the Jazz. But as we saw Monday night, they can't count on things going their way in the playoffs.

J.A. Adande is a columnist for ESPN.com.

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