WTLC Daily Loud Links for November 1, 2013

The Thunder prepare for their division rivals the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight. Let's check out what is going around the league in preparation.

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Something to keep an eye on here - Darnell Mayberry reports that Reggie Jackson is dealing with a lower back injury.

Jackson played 32 uncomfortable minutes in the Thunder's season opener at Utah, nursing obvious discomfort in his lower back area. At several points during the game, Jackson placed a heating pad on his back when he was on the bench and attempted stretching near the bench at other points during the action. At one point, Jackson needed to retreat to the locker-room area.

Royce Young gets on the ol' TV to talk about Russell Westbrook's recovery. Like any good blogger, his personal visage is conspicuously absent.

Tom Ziller takes Mark Cuban to task over Cube's griping about losing out on the Dwight Howard sweepstakes.

In the end, there's little actual sense to it. It's just Cuban's way of dealing with failure: impugn the intelligence of those who spurned you. Ironically, Cuban's insistence in reacting like this probably does the Mavericks no favors when it comes to recruiting players.

Did you notice that the Thunder had only 9 assists on opening night? Yep.

The Thunder finished with just nine assists against the Jazz. OKC made 33 shots.

Utah, which was without five injured players, including Trey Burke, the ninth overall pick and the Jazz's projected starting point guard, had 25 assists.

Today is Friday, and Kobe Bryant just got paid $24 million as an advance on this season's salary. What did you do today? Me? I wrote this post, chronicling the fact that Kobe just got a $24 million payment (I imagine it is delivered in 12 million $2 bills, arriving in an armor-plated Oscar Mayer Weener-mobile) and that probably earned me at least $1.05.

Rookie Michael Carter-Williams had a remarkable debut, as the 76ers surprised the champs. Coach Nick breaks it down, and there are plenty of valuable insights in there worth noting. One off-handed comment he makes though is that Dwyane Wade sat out on the night to rest his knees. Wait, what? It's the second game of the season!

Derrick Rose is back in the building, making his Chicago home debut. Even though he's still working off the rust, he was still right there in the end, hitting the game winning shot.

Yesterday evening we were treated to a showcase of 2 of the best guards in the game in Chris Paul and Stephen Curry. I hope you witnessed it. What we didn't know at the time was that pre-game chapel service, ordinarily held simultaneously for both teams, was diverted a bit by the home town Clippers.

It's a long-standing tradition for Christians on both teams to have chapel together. Each NBA arena offers this service to the players, and there is usually one time and one room.

That wasn't the case Thursday.

According to multiple sources, the Warriors were surprisingly given a separate, earlier, time for their own chapel services. The Clippers held their own private chapel.

"Man, they don't want to have chapel with us?" one team source asked. "I never heard that before, but OK."

Kelly Dwyer offers some perspective:

The point of prayer before a game is to recognize that there is something bigger than the game, and something larger at stake. The point of chapel services prior to a contest is to recognize the humanity underneath that other guy’s uniform, and to show humility prior to something that can pump the ego and inflame the senses.

Lastly, Kevin Durant is interviewed by Tulsa Shock's Skylar Diggins: