A feud is brewing between Denver's Nene and Phoenix's Louis Amundson after an on-court altercation last week and a number of insults in the press.

Amundson called Nene a "dirty player" after he accused the Nuggets forward of headbutting him in a game last week.

"You learn that you don't let a stupid dude take you out of the game because he's nobody," Nene fired back. "He doesn't have much (game). He just goes over there and tries to get a contract.

"That was no head-butt. That is nothing. . . . If I do a head-butt, I break all of his face."

Nuggets forward Renaldo Balkman believes that the Knicks regret trading him last summer.

"They already do," said Balkman when asked whether New York regrets dealing him.

The Knicks traded Balkman to the Nuggets in July for pair of players with nonguaranteed contracts, Taurean Green and Bobby Jones, who they then waived, and a 2010 second-round pick.

"They did what they had to do," Balkman said of the Knicks dealing him. "It's all politics in this game. But I'm here for a reason."

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for publicly criticizing the officials after the team's loss to the Nuggets on Friday night.

Cuban made his complaints on the social-networking site Twitter.

The owner said in another posting Sunday that he "can't say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does."

Cuban complained that Denver's J.R. Smith was not called for coming off the bench to taunt Antoine Wright after he missed a shot near the Nuggets bench.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban used Twitter to question a noncall in the team's loss to the Nuggets on Friday night.

The incident occurred between Mavericks guard Antoine Wright and Nuggets swingman J.R. Smith.

"How do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground?" Cuban wrote shortly after the game.

"Scary part of that play: Same crew chief from game in Denver where they missed call - last play of the game & 1st JRSmith/Wright issue," Cuban wrote in another post.

Suns forward Louis Amundson called Nuggets big man Nene a "dirty player" after an altercation between the two on Monday night.

Nene threw a head butt at Amundson during the fourth quarter of Denver's 118-115 loss to Phoenix, which led Amundson to call Nene a "dirty player" and a "fake, tough guy."

After the head butt, Nene earned an ejection for elbowing Amundson.

"He's from Brazil, so I'm sure he knows about soccer tactics like the head butt," said Amundson.

Denver forward Linas Kleiza has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for verbal abuse of officials after a game against Washington on Friday.

The league didn't disclose what Kleiza said to the officials in the game that the Nuggets won 116-105.

Nuggets coach George Karl is happy to see his team getting closer to full strength, and has welcomed the issue of deciding playing time.

"You want to have the Renaldo Balkman problem," Karl said. "You want to have a Chris Andersen problem. You want to have an (Anthony Carter) problem and a J.R. (Smith) problem.

"You want your bench guys to be playing so well. And then it comes down to the circumstances of how you want to coach the game and the matchups you're involved with. The more weapons you have, the more versatility you have, the more options you have, usually the better team you are."

The Nuggets are making it known that they'd like to re-sign veteran big man Chris Andersen this coming summer.

"There's a desire to keep him," coach George Karl said. "We're going to be financially responsible ... I don't know what the market is. I know it's probably going to be more than we thought at the beginning of the year, but that's part of the business ... We've gotten a great gift in Chris, and I'm sure right now everybody would vote yes to keep him, to somehow figure it out."

Andersen signed a one-year deal worth the minimum of $998,398 last July after returning from a two-year NBA drug suspension.

He is averaging 6.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.34 blocked shots in just 19 minutes per game.

The Nuggets lost to the Rockets on Monday night, their eighth loss in 11 games, which has dropped them to seventh place in the Western Conference.

"It's frustrating. We done came so far and worked so hard to get where we were at, and it's like we're going backwards now," Anthony said.

Coach George Karl believes that the team is suffering from a lack of confidence in the wake of their recent skid.

"It is the NBA; it is a very mean business," said Karl.

Nuggets forward Nene has played and smiled through right knee pain in recent weeks, but his bone bruise is still far from healed.

"It's sore," Nene said. "It's going to take a while."

He missed two games in February because of the injury, and has seen a slight decrease in his production as of late.

"It's a lot of games in so short days," Nene said of the team's nine games in 15 days. "After (this back-to-back), we get a couple of days to rest. It's going to make all of the players' bodies feel good."