Courtney Lee was ready to practice today. He wanted to practice.
But he was not able to practice. That’s because the Nets went the sensible route and held him out one day after he twisted his right ankle.
“I was ready to go today. But they were like, ‘Jjust take one day at a time and make sure you’re fully ready and recovered,'” said Lee who wore a large support wrap on his ankle and said “of course” when asked if he expected to play Friday at Philadelphia.
Lee went for X-rays Tuesday – they were negative – and he received treatment that “did the job.” Lee admitted for an instant Tuesday he though this was worse than it turned out to be.
“I’m used to spraining my ankle,” he said, “but this time when I sprained it I had the force of somebody else’s body on there and it swelled up. It never swells up. That was the only thing that concerned me. Once the swelling went down I was fine because I was walking with my shoe on, climbing up the stairs at home.”
Lee who said he intends to practice tomorrow, also reported the inflamed tendon problem in his left foot is “history.”
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Devin Harris who tweaked his left ankle – not to be confused with the right ankle to tweaked last week – was back and going all out.
“No problem,” Harris said. “Treatment, ice. I’m good to go. And then we gave them a good (butt) whipping (in scrimmage) today.”
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One slight hold-your-breath moment. In a “next basket wins” scenario at scrimmage, Eduardo Najera, in just his second day back practicing after dealing with a balky back, was taken down by Harris. Didn’t quite jump up.
“My back wasn’t an issue. It was my abdomen. But it’s fine,” said Najera, who had sports hernia surgery in March and the procedure led to him putting stress on his back.
But he says all is coming along now.
“Fell real good, better than I thought,” said Najera, one of those competing for the backup four minutes behind Yi Jianlian. “I thought I was going to be out of it, winded. I hadn’t really been going that long…But the good thing is we have a lot of guys so you can get rest. I felt good but I still have to get in better shape, get more repetitions and I should be fine.”
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Najera, Josh Boone, Sean Williams, Bobby Simmons and when he gets healthy, Tony Battie, are the candidates for the backup four (and coach Lawrence Frank looks at any and all possibilities – Jarvis Hayes played it some last season).
“It’s going to be interesting,” Frank said. “We’ll audition a bunch of guys and we’ll see. Josh and Sean (have been) given some opportunity, Bobby obviously is a viable option and with Eduardo, if he can get healthy. And Tony, if he can get healthy, we’ll have some options and we’ll figure it out.”
Boone largely has played five in his career but he could get a look at power forward in his contract year because Frank sees the spots as “interchangeable” when Brook Lopez is off the floor to an extent.
“That was the goal of the summer: to make it obvious I can play both positions,” said Boone. “I would like to be a versatile guy. I think if I can play the four and the five it’s going to help our team a lot…I just want to be on the floor.”
Boone also tweaked his left ankle but claimed it was no big deal.
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Brook Lopez, Detroit Tigers fan, looked at another Tiger fan and asked “Did you see that yesterday? What was that? Did you believe that?”
“That” was the thrilling Game 163 Tiger loss that moved the Twins against the Yankees. And to answer Lopez, “Yes…The end of one of the worst choke jobs ever…And, quite frankly, yes.”