Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are at their best when their team’s at its worst

In the closing seconds of the third quarter of a recent Thunder blowout win, Enes Kanter launched a full-court buzzer beater from opposite end of the court. Much to Kevin Durant’s amusement, Kanter hurled it so hard and off-target that the ball went over the rim and deep into the crowd behind it.

If one were to illustrate the chances the Thunder win the NBA title this season, it’d look a lot like that Kanter attempt. But even trying when other players elect to preserve their field-goal percentage shows the freedom that comes with no expectations. A player can only outperform in that situation.

That situation describes the Thunder’s predicament this season, whether they like it or not. Their championship window is closing with such speed that it’s becoming hard to remember the budding dynasty featuring two of the league’s top 10 players, a bench star that eventually joined that elite group elsewhere and the Platonic ideal of the modern defensive big men.

Several of these factors still exist, but the perception has changed. They haven’t won it all yet and are no longer expected to even make the Western Conference Finals, let alone the NBA Finals.

Oddly, this atmosphere has actually benefited the team’s two superstars. Away from the constant spotlight, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are playing as well as ever.

There was a time when we weren’t sure we’d see the dynamic duo healthy together again. Durant was back from three foot surgeries, but quickly developed a hamstring issue that kept him out in mid-November. The Thunder were forced to revert to the one-man Westbrook show, a dazzling spectacle that highlights all of the point guard’s best attributes, but doesn’t translate to many wins because one man is not a team.

But Durant soon returned with a vengeance, and we’re learning that maybe a duo is enough to be very good. The Thunder have won 10 of their last 12 games and are on a six-game streak heading into a Thursday TNT showdown with Cleveland. Durant averaged 25.5 points during the winning run while shooting 58 percent from the floor. He’s got a chance to post another 50-40-90 season and is just as productive as rival LeBron James. His offensive rating of 112.2 is higher than it was in his 2013-14 MVP season. He’s not just back. He’s better.

Durant’s partner is just as deadly. Westbrook’s lone ranger act last season was futile, but it also helped him develop in ways that he couldn’t have with a complete team. It was in that same black hole of low expectations that Westbrook was able to discover his full powers. Without Durant, and with the team holding onto the smallest chance of making actual noise, Westbrook exhausted himself in all faculties to chase the dying light.

The Thunder missed the postseason, and had they even made it, they would have been extinguished by the overwhelming power of the Warriors. But in that struggle, Westbrook scored, passed and rebounded at historic levels for the last stretch of the season. It was bittersweet to watch a man strive to his utmost ability and fail in the face of crushing circumstances, but that experience has helped him coexist with Durant in fantastic fashion.

So much for the concern that one has to be the main show and the other a sidekick, as if having two MVP-caliber players on the same team was a burden. In the Thunder’s last game against the Blazers, Westbrook scored 13 points, notched five assists, snared two steals and grabbed three rebounds. That was by far his worst game of this stretch. Against Utah, he put up a line of 25-5-2-11. The game before that, he dropped 24-7-2-7. Against Atlanta: 23-10-3-6. In the Dec. 8 blowout of Memphis, Westbrook only scored 13 points, but handed out 16 assists, six of which were to Durant. When the Thunder hosted the Kings two days earlier, he posted a triple-double.

Westbrook is morphing into whatever the Thunder need, and that changes from game to game. It’s a privilege that comes with being able to do it all.

Durant has that ability as well, creating a system where the two work in tandem to not only win, but also make up for each other’s deficiencies. Whatever one isn’t doing, the other can. They’re still destructive enough to overwhelm most teams by themselves.

Sadly, their on-court synergy is at its best when their chances of winning it all are at their worst. Regardless of how well they work together, the shadow of the Warriors and the Spurs looms above them. Even with their six-game winning streak, the Thunder are still miles from both teams. They are 7.5 games behind the Warriors in the standings, and the gulf between those teams seems much larger than that.

But you know Durant and Westbrook aren’t thinking that way. Depending on what happens with Durant’s free agency this summer, this might be the Thunder’s last chance to fulfill the promise they once showed. Durant and Westbrook and no longer prospects, they’re bona fide superstars. The new coaching situation is freeing them from a structural rut and their defense has improved after a rough start. While their supporting cast is still underwhelming, maybe Dion Waiters, Enes Kanter and others can take the next step in the next six months. Anything is possible.

It’s eerie that two of the game’s five best players are at the peak of their powers when their team’s chances for the ultimate success are minuscule and the NBA world has moved on to other flavors of the month. It’s also too bad for Thunder fans lamenting missed opportunities.

But if we learned anything from Westbrook’s run at the end of last season and Kanter’s bold, hilarious full-court miss, it’s that the desperation that comes from bleakness leads to some amazing feats.