The Philadelphia 76ers have signed guard Xavier Silas for the remainder of the 2011-12 season.  Silas was previously a member of the Sixers NBA Development League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws.

Silas (6-5, 205) was not selected in the 2011 NBA Draft following his senior season at Northern Illinois but signed to play with BCM Gravelines Dunkerque Grand Littoral of the French League.  On December 9, he signed with the Sixers and participated in the team’s training camp along with both preseason games against Washington before being waived prior to the start of the regular season.

Shortly after, Silas joined the D-League.  In 39 games with 22 starts for the Red Claws, he averaged 9.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 23.6 minutes per game while shooting 40.1% from the floor, 29.5% from 3-point range and 78.7% from the line.

Doug Collins was fined $15,000 for verbal abuse of an official during Saturday's overtime win against the Pacers.

Referee Zach Zarba was on the receiving end of Collins' anger.

"I don't ever want to get fined. I've been in the NBA for 40 years," Collins said. "It was sort of a buildup over a few things. It wasn't one thing, it was sort of a buildup. It was an emotional game, and we were able to win the game and stuff. I didn't leave the court in a timely fashion, and I should have been fined. The league did what they should have done, and I apologized."

Lou Williams intends to opt out and become a free agent at the end of the season, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Said the source: "He's indicated that he's not going to pick up his option. All indications are that he's going to opt out."

Williams has not informed the Sixers of his plans.

"He has not said what he will do, but we will react to that when the time comes," general manager Rod Thorn said.

The mathematics behind the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference are starting to become clear. 

The Milwaukee Bucks are two games behind the eighth-place New York Knicks overall, but Milwaukee is only one game back of New York in the loss column of the Eastern Conference records of the two clubs.  This is the second and possibly decisive tiebreaker since the teams have split their season series 2-2.

For either team, the only Western Conference opponent remaining is the Los Angeles Clippers, who play at Madison Square Garden on April 25 in the second-to-last game on New York's schedule.

Therefore, if the Bucks were to gain exactly two games on the Knicks overall through the end of the regular season -- meaning both teams finish with the exact same record -- the only way that the Bucks will not win the the second tiebreaker against the Knicks is if one of the Knicks' losses is to the Clippers.  Any other defeat of New York would be at the hands of an Eastern Conference club and give Milwaukee the superior conference record.

If the Bucks and Knicks were to finish with the exact same Eastern Conference records, New York has already clinched ownership of the third tiebreaker against Milwaukee (record versus playoff-eligible teams in the conference).

Meanwhile, the Knicks are only one game behind the Philadelphia 76ers who sit in seventh place, and New York owns the 2-1 season series tiebreaker.  The Bucks are three games behind the Sixers, with their season series tied 1-1 and a head-to-head game looming in Milwaukee on April 25.