"I have no appreciation for it at all," said Perkins' Thunder teammate Kevin Durant. "It was a layup, I think. He threw the ball in and got fouled and made his free throw, so it was three points at the end of the day, no matter how it happened, how it went in the basket. I really wasn't impressed. He finished it. So what? We've moved on."

Bad news: TJ FORD NOT CLOSE TO RETURNING

Manu Ginobili (hand) is expected back well before Ford. "Hamstrings are a tricky thing," coach Gregg Popovich said.

TJ was diagnosed with a torn left hamstring on Jan. 10th and was orignially expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

Splitter isn't going to put up big numbers, but he's going to get a lot of run on a good team and will be very effective when he plays. Splitter's translated European stats suggested he was a starting-caliber NBA big man, which is why it surprised me to see him at the end of the Spurs' bench last year.

This isn't uncommon for San Antonio -- Fabricio Oberto suffered a similar fate before emerging as a starter a year later -- and Splitter's overseas numbers were much stronger than Oberto's. Don't look at the five points he had in the opener; look instead at the 33 minutes he played. Dude is gonna be a major factor his year.

Spurs wavied De'sean Butler

Odom to the Mavs for 2012 first round pick.

Player Movement

WojYahooNBA: Correction: The proposed deal to the Lakers is Chris Paul for Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, source says

@Chris_Broussard: Shannon Brown to sign with Phoenix

Knicks looking to amnesty Chauncy and pick up Chandler

Oden is going to sign a 1 year with Portland