Friday Bolts – 9.21.12

Lakers Nation on the Thunder

: “Both teams will face each other with a bit of a chip on their shoulders from last season. The Thunder knocked the Lakers out of the post-season last May and made it look easy. The Thunder feel like they have a further point to prove since they were beat in the Finals by the Miami Heat, who made that look equally easy. The Thunder are the defending Western Conference champs, and that title alone delegates them as the top dogs of the West, but the Lakers feel different.”

With Leather on the awesome Thunder video: “What are the chances that you woke up this morning wishing you could hear an Oklahoma City Thunder anthem set to the tune of ‘Rawhide’, performed on a keyboard and sung by people at an Oklahoma assisted living center? If you answered, “100 percent,” you’re in luck! This officially usurps the Carly Rae Jepsen parody “Call Me KD” as the best OKC fan song we’ve ever written about at With Leather, but it’s not really fair. This one has an old lady bobbing up and down while a keyboard guy who may or may not be my dad points at her to fill in the breaks. This is the stuff dreams are made of.”

Next round for OKC in the 3-on-3 tournament.

How good are the Wolves? Sekou Smith of NBA.com says maybe pretty good: “The added bonus this year for the Timberwolves come in the form of improved depth. Aleksey Shved, Andrei Kirilenko and Chase Budinger will help upgrade the backcourt and wing rotations. And when Rubio returns, they should have everything covered. Bottom line: If Derrick Williams finds his niche this season, this team becomes extremely dangerous.”

Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love all working out together.

Lee Jenkins on Gregg Popovich’s standing in NBA coaching: “I’ll say fiction. He’s right up there, of course, but the Thunder made key changes in the Western Conference finals, and the Spurs never really adjusted. Based on the past two years, I’ll take Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau, who did more with less, until he lost Derrick Rose.”

Single game Thunder tickets go on sale Oct. 2 at 10 AM. The team warns tickets will be “extremely limited” so hustle up.

Hollinger profiling the Thunder in video form.

James Harden tweets: “Oklahoma City. I’ve missed you.” And Harden ranked 26th in #NBARank.