As we head toward the All-Star break, we’re playing some of our best basketball of the season. A big reason for that is that we’ve been able to draw off past experiences — both good and bad — to get better.

Sometimes, it takes certain adverse situations to show you what you’re capable of.

Going through that little rough stretch in January, losing games we felt we should have won, taught us that we needed to be better. We went back to the basics of playing defense, and making it tough for teams to score on us. Everything else followed. It’s all part of gaining experience as a team.

We’ve been through a lot the past few years. The experience of playing without Russell in the playoffs last year had a major impact on our team. But it taught us something.

We still miss him every game, but going through the postseason last year prepared us for what we’re experiencing this year. We’ve been able to adjust.

Adversity doesn’t weaken you. It makes you stronger. It makes you better.

We’ve also spent a lot of time this season focusing on who we are, and not so much on our opponents each night and what they do. We truly believe that if we focus on ourselves and do the things we’re capable of doing to the best of our ability, we’re as good as or better than anybody.

That’s one of those things I’ve picked up through my experience on teams going as far back as I can remember: high school, AAU teams, college and then obviously, championship teams in the pros. Once you’ve won a championship, you develop a better understanding of what it takes to become a champion. You can look back on what went into that process, and start to learn how to replicate that. You want to try and do it in a way that is sustainable so you’re not just winning one game, but winning game after game after game.

It helps to respect all of your opponents. But you don’t want to spend more time than necessary preparing for them. You just have to make sure you’re doing the things that you need to do as a team to win. We’ve found a way to sustain that mentality.

SHARED EXPERIENCES

As a veteran, I’ve had a lot of experiences that have enriched my career and helped me grow as a player. They’re the type of experiences I share with my teammates at appropriate moments. If I feel at particular time there’s something unique I’m seeing from my perspective, I’ll just try to offer my thoughts on the situation.

I try not to overdo it when I offer teammates information, especially during the game. When you’re playing, there’s so much information to process. I just try to be as helpful as I possibly can. For the most part, guys are receptive, especially in the locker room and on the road.

Oftentimes, when you’re telling these stories, the younger guys in the locker room remember specifically where they were, and what point in their lives they were watching a game or playoff series. It helps to offer them a different perspective on how they look at a situation.

Especially now, with the 24-hour sports news cycle, players feel like they’re in bubble. If something goes wrong in a series, they can feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. Sometimes, when a veteran player can share a story or experience, it helps others realize that while in the moment something may seem improbable, it isn’t impossible.

It can help a teammate realize that whatever he’s trying to do has been done before. There were guys before you, and there will be guys that after you who had or will have the same experience, and will be able to figure it out and get it done. You can, too.

INTUITION FOR OPPORTUNITY

Our team made the trip to Orlando last week, which allowed me to recall situations during the 2009 NBA Finals that went on to play an instrumental role in my career.

That whole Finals series is unforgettable to me.

I still remember Game 2 in Los Angeles almost like it was yesterday. We came off a big win in Game 1, and Orlando did a great job making some adjustments, and doing things to cause problems for us there in Game 2. We were close to losing that game on a Courtney Lee tip-in at the end of regulation.

But once we got to that overtime period, it was just about digging in.

In any big game or playoff series, there are moments and opportunities to really impose your will and take control. Over the years, Phil Jackson helped us develop the ability to intuitively sense those moments, and take advantage of them.

I remember feeling fatigued and exhausted after playing so hard already through the first 48 minutes of regulation. But that sense took over, and we fought through it. In that overtime period, I remember going to another level defensively. I can’t even recall whether or not I actually made a shot in that overtime period. I just remember being on defense, being active and aggressive, deflecting passes and making plays.

That’s where I helped make the difference in us securing that game.

TWO EPIC SHOTS

When you start out with home court advantage in a playoff series, and you win those first two games, Game 3 is a tremendous chance to fully take control of the series, and force the other team to think about beating you four times in a row. We obviously didn’t accomplish that.

Going into Game 4, we all understood how important that game was. We sensed that we didn’t really have control of the series until we won that third game.

That particular night in Orlando — making those two shots to help us take control of that series by winning that game — means more to me than some of the other shots I’ve made over time, including the 0.4 shot in San Antonio. The reason? We went on to win a championship.

I’ve written on here about the moment in Utah and Game 3 of the 2010 Finals against the Celtics. Those moments in Orlando rank right up there among the Top 5 of my career.

Those shots were born out of two very different situations.

In both cases, Kobe Bryant was our first option.

On the first shot, Kobe took the ball out of bounds, got double teamed and threw it ahead to Trevor Ariza, who kicked it ahead to me. Kobe didn’t get a chance to get the ball back because I went down and shot it.

I don’t know how excited he was for me to be taking that shot.

If you look at the tape, he’s kind of cringing until the shot goes in. He always wants to take that shot, and he was kind of like, “Hold up, I should be taking that shot.”

On the second shot, Kobe again got doubled and passed to me, which I think was the result of a professional lifetime worth of trust. That’s the only way that players of his caliber — not that there have been many — can have the confidence to pass that ball to a teammate in that situation. It’s the right basketball play, and they trust the result.

That doesn’t happen by accident. It only happens by example and experience. At that point in 2009, we’d had 10-11 years together.

We went on to win the series in five games.

With the team we have here in Oklahoma City, there are a number of guys who could be in a similar position to mine in those 2009 Finals (aside from the obvious of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook). We’ve built trust between all of us as teammates on a daily basis. So you could go from Reggie Jackson to Jeremy Lamb to Serge Ibaka to Thabo Sefolosha.

I remember a shot in the Finals against Miami in 2012. Seflolosha got a kick out to the corner for a three-pointer that got tipped a little bit. But it was the right pass to make at that time. Kevin and Russell have shown time and time again that they’ll make that right play regardless of who it is. They trust all of their guys, and they see how much work everybody puts in on a daily basis to be prepared for those moments.

That’s what will make us tough to beat.