MIAMI -- With 10 minutes left in Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals the Miami Heat walked to their bench up nine points in the game and 2-1 in the series with the Dallas Mavericks. In that moment, even though they were on the road playing against a veteran team and the series was technically far from over, it did appear as though the Heat were within sight of pulling it off and actually delivering a championship.

Going into that timeout, which Mavs coach Rick Carlisle called after the Heat completed a 10-1 run, turned out to be the last bit of euphoria the Heat would feel on the season. Frankly, they haven't felt a lot of it since, with the epic meltdown that followed casting a shadow over much of what they have accomplished this season.

So back in the same position, up 2-1 going into Game 4 against the Oklahoma City Thunder and this time playing at home, do the Heat have a different perspective on the fragility of the position and the gravity of the opportunity that faces them? There's no chance they won't start Game 4 knowing that the last 30 teams to go up 3-1 in the Finals have won the whole thing, because, well, they heard that same statistic last year. And there's no chance they won't think about what happened last year all the way up until Tuesday's tip off.

"We've put last year behind us," Heat coach Erik Spolestra said at the start of the series, which couldn't possibly be true but was smart public relations. "We went through the pain, we went through the evaluation, we went through the recommitment at the beginning of the year."

And they're still going through it.

The Heat blew a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 2 to Dallas last year but they truly lost the Finals when they let Game 4 slip because they were able to steal Game 3. Same situation this year, they eked out Game 3 on a night when they failed to shoot 40 percent and committed nine turnovers in the fourth quarter. Nonetheless, 2-1 is 2-1 just as it was last season. And there's no dodging the memories that being in the same position drags to the surface.

"Of course it stuck with us, all the way to this day," said LeBron James, who played one of the worst games of his career in Game 4 last year when he infamously didn't score in the fourth quarter and finished with just eight points. "But we're a totally different team than we were last year. We understand what it takes to win and we've used that motivation and we'll continue to use that motivation."

That sounds reasonable. The Heat have had a much different playoff experience this year and there's no mistaking the difference in their resolve. They didn't fall behind in a series last season until Dallas took a 3-2 lead after the Mavs backed up the Game 4 comeback with a great Game 5 performance. The Heat have already been behind three times in these playoffs and have rallied back all three times.

They've gone through six starting lineup changes in the playoffs, an injury to Chris Bosh and two elimination games. Coming back from 10 points down in the second half to beat the Thunder on Sunday night was a feat they might not have been mentally strong enough to pull off last season. But this year it did have an another-night-at-the-office feel.

Does that collection of scars mean the Heat will be different this time? If they have a late lead will they be able to protect it against a Thunder team that is expected to be playing desperate and already has proven that it can also come from behind in a series this postseason? It's not easy to predict. Especially with the series having been played so close for the first three games. Only one point separates the teams after 154 minutes of competition.

"There's no substitute for experience," Dwyane Wade said. "But experience doesn't guarantee you anything. It just lets you know I've been here before. That doesn't mean it's going to be successful for you."

The Heat may have entered this series as underdogs but they have played well enough to change that perception. With the lead and the next two games at home, the Larry O'Brien Trophy is once again peeking over the horizon. Last year that moment served as a bait-and-switch, setting them up for a greater fall and triggering an avalanche of schadenfreude for how it and they went down.

Getting another lead and being put back in the same position has only heightened the stakes. Game 4 was where it all went wrong for the Heat last year. This time, it could be where it all goes right. Or it could reprise its role as catalyst for another summer of unyielding regret. Such is life when living with the baggage of the recent past, a past the Heat remain in uncomfortable touch with.

"We're going into Game 4 with a lot of experience in this type of situation," James said. "We'll be ready. We love the challenge."

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