— Forget the ugliness of Thursday night.

This one got away in Game 3.

Fundamentals and focus seem so much like cliches in this business but it was those two factors that burned the Thunder in the game that shifted the NBA finals for good.

The mental focus, particularly defensively, and a horrendous free throw night so uncommon all season long did the Thunder in. Coaches can talk about innovative schemes, but hit your free throws and play defense and chances are, you’re not explaining losses.  

Thus, the opportunity to take charge of the series lost. Thursday night, LeBron James took over.

Cleveland and much of the 80 or so percent of the country that cast their votes for the Thunder in this NBA Finals on ESPN can hate on.

This was his finals — especially in the three-game Miami party.

Stunningly denied by a Dallas team thought to be over the hill a year ago, James rose to 26 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists in the 121-106 win.

It capped a series that was the kind of effort that delivered what he promised back in that ballyhooed made-for-ESPN show when he turned on Cleveland and promised Miami rings.

He delivered.

The season’s MVP was the finals MVP, not the league’s scoring champion Durant. Durant outscored James by six points. It wasn’t good enough to get the series back to Oklahoma City.

“When you play against the best, you learn,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said after the game. “We’ve played against the best the last three years.”

That’s in order, the Lakers, Mavericks, and now Heat, all in order the winners of the Larry O’Brien Trophy as the league’s best team.

James, clearly, cemented his spot as the best player in a season of argument over him and Durant. He’s 27 and not going anywhere. Durant, four years his junior, will be in pursuit, and perhaps will top him eventually.

But not now. Questionable officiating duly noted, James’ 6-8, 250-pound frame nonetheless seemed at times to intimidate, if not frustrate, Durant and his teammates, particularly when the series shifted to Florida and particularly on the finishing night.

Durant gave it to him afterward.

“An unbelievable player and an unbelievable person,” he told reporters afterward. “You could tell he was very focused.”

Hungrier perhaps. Scorned last year, a burning fury this year when it counted most.

Kevin, most of Thunder Nation doesn’t think much less of you.  A guy who could, in his closing remarks Thursday night, thank the media, and as we’ve seen so often, love his momma like you do, is spot-on in the person department.

Playing skills aren’t that bad either. Just not the best.

The two of them should be golden in London in a month or so.