WTLC Daily Loud Links: November 7, 2013

The Oklahoma City Thunder improved to 3-1 last night after a 107-93 win over the Dallas Mavericks. If you haven't checked out our post game recap of it, click HERE.

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In Darnell Mayberry's post game nuggets, he notes that all of the youngsters who are getting rotation minutes are starting to show some signs of confidence. On Jeremy Lamb:

Lamb looked comfortable again for the second straight game. He had his catch-and-shoot game going tonight, knocking down 3s off kick-outs from Durant and Ibaka, and he rebounded well and made plays for others. On the Thunder’s first possession of the fourth quarter, Lamb worked with Collison on a nice little two-man game and set up Collison for a nice layup. You can see Lamb’s confidence growing.

Anthony Slater covers Scott Brooks' trust in Steven Adams. After sitting for the entire 1st quarter, Adams logged 20 minutes over the next 36, and it was during this time that OKC made their push to take over the Mavericks.

Andrew Gilman writesthat the Thunder are starting to resemble the last two iterations that had championship potential. Quote of the story:

"I feel fine, bro"

ESPN's Royce Young wrote up a great article talking about how the success and the expectations have changed the way the media and fans view the Thunder.

But with success comes expectation. And with expectation its ugly cousin, entitlement. Pretty soon, "We're just happy to be here" becomes, "We want to win now." And it isn't just the fans -- the national media has started asking pointed questions, too. And when real-life results have fallen short of expectations, the Thunder love has cooled.

The Mavericks for a long time where the Thunder's biggest nemesis in the West, so it is remarkable to see how OKC has completely turned the tables on them since that humbling loss in the WCF 3 seasons ago.

"They got better and better, and we didn't." - Dirk Nowitzki

At Sekou Smith's blog, they do a roundtableon Russell Westbrook's impact on the West. For some reason Smith still likes the Warriors to come out of it all. I really don't understand his thinking at times.

On Monday, Kevin Martin had some interesting comments about his new team that sounded like he was talking smack about his former team. He said that nobody on the Timberwolves was "trying to lead the NBA in points" which we all know, is what Durant does year in and year out. But Durant brushed off any "beef" that was started by these comments.

Nah. I know what type of guy K-Mart is. He's far from one of those type of guys who wants that shine, too. He's not that type of guy. So I didn't really think too much about it. I enjoyed playing with K-Mart.

Here's a good link on Yahoo! by Eric Freeman. Julius Erving talks about a basketball game that was cancelled between him, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and the president, Barack Obama. There's also a cool video on there where Dr. J goes one-on-one with Stephen Colbert. You'll be surprised how entertaining it is.

Golliver writes about a new documentary coming out called "Lenny Cooke." These types of documentaries are always compelling and bittersweet, and it's important to note that at one time Cooke was considered a peer of both LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.

Lastly, wow Paul George. Talk about throwing the gauntlet down. I like it.