Courtney Lee cleared for practice

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Courtney Lee has been sidelined since the preseason with neck spasms, but he is closing in on a return to action.

Lee was cleared to practice in full Saturday and did all contact drills with the team. But he still is not quite ready for game action and needs more practice time to see how his body responds to the increased workload.

“That’s an update that’s good news to me because I’ve been sitting out watching practice, watching games not being a part of it, just being miserable,” Lee said. “Now I got a chance to practice; the last practice was before we left. It felt good to be out there.

“With the schedule how it is right now, we’re playing so many games and there’s not so many practices. Definitely got to get in practice to get my timing down, learn all the plays. I pretty much know all of them. But he changed a couple wrinkles in some. Got to get in there and feel comfortable with the guys, grow some chemistry. Once I get that rhythm, I should be fine from there. Definitely need multiple practices.”

Lee originally suffered the injury in practice during the preseason when a collision with Ron Baker sent him crashing into the stanchion behind the basket.

With back-to-back games in Detroit and Philadelphia coming up, the opportunities for Lee are limited. That has held him back from putting any sort of timetable on a return. And he noted that not all of the symptoms have cleared up.

“I may get a spasm here and there in my shoulders and sometimes in my neck,” he said. “But not to the magnitude of when it was at its peak.

“I’m not worried. When I was getting those spasms, it was a lot of other things that was going along with it I was worried about then. All those symptoms have gone away, so I’m not worried at all.”